DNA Edit: US wants the internet – Its companies want to arm-twist India

Close on the heels of the heartening development about India climbing 23 notches on the World Bank’s ease of doing business index, US companies are trying to arm-twist India to open up its market for its internet companies. With digital trade comprising 50 per cent of all US services exports — it exports $86.5 billion of products and services through digital trade every year — Amazon, Google and Facebook along with 30 other companies, want India to drop its requirements on data localisation. Through their lobbying body Internet Association (IA) these companies are pushing the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to browbeat India. As a populous democracy, India accounts for the largest number of internet users. China does not allow these internet companies to operate in its market hence they want to own the Indian internet market. 

Indian eCommerce is expected to surpass the United States to become the second largest eCommerce market in the world. This market is expected to reach $64 billion by 2020 and $200 billion by 2026. The Internet Association’s report to the USTR has mischievously misinterpreted India’s privacy and security concerns as trade barriers. It advises India to “imbibe best global practices” by diluting the provisions of data governance and data localisation, which have prevented unfettered market access to US firms. The IA’s cautionary note says forced data localisation will decrease FDI, harm India’s ease of doing business goals, and make it more difficult for local start-ups to access cutting-edge technologies is an undisguised threat. 

These threats shouldn’t deter India from passing the data protection bill, which has suggested several measures for safeguarding personal information, defining obligations of data processors as well as rights of individuals and the proposed penalties for violation. US companies should abide by Indian laws and not consider them discriminatory just because it affects them. Recall that tech giant Google saw its India revenues grow 29 per cent to about Rs 9,338 crore in 2017-18 over the previous financial year, as per regulatory documents. The irony couldn’t have been starker. On the one hand, the founders/ CEOs of these tech giants will talk about creating jobs in India, and on the other, tell US government about “unfair” India’s laws and label them as barriers. Mark Zuckerberg says that “India continues to be the backbone for its growth” and that the social media platform’s global user base increased to 1.47 billion, thanks to its increasing popularity among users in India. 

Google CEO Sundar Pichai had hailed the “exciting digital transformation” in India and the opportunities such a move is creating in the region. He said it was Google’s privilege to be part of it. It’s evident that US companies speak in forked tongues; maybe they are rattled by competition from Indian internet firms. India’s digital economy is poised for a quantum leap and like China it is important to manage its dynamics for local growth. The US hegemony over the internet will face severe obstacles not just from India but other countries as well. The internet was meant to be free and independent, but this move highlights that US companies want to own it, and run it.