Dr John Mohan Razu
Few weeks ago, the world’s top four media giants went for initial questioning of their alleged nefarious activities before the Congressional Anti-Trust committee. All the CEOs were literally grilled by the Congress lawmakers based on the information that surfaced all these years. One such practices has been their tacit involvement and indulging in politics—showing its bias to a political party and wooing the electorates—losing their objectivity by towing the ruling class.
Wallstreet Journal triggered a storm involving one of the top media tech giants Facebook accusing that it is increasingly moving towards BJP. Is Facebook biased? Is Facebook pro-BJP bias? A serious allegation that infuriated the major parties in the opposition. It has been simmering in recent days but suddenly has assumed alarming proportions. Nowadays the media giants have huge following and literally control millions of Indians.
In a world of information Facebook, WhatsApp and few other social media tech giants having billions of followers and huge capital are involved in nefarious activities. Facebook has 350 and WhatsApp with 400 million followings which means they control almost the entire vote bank and the prospective electorates. News of all kinds are uploaded by those registered and subscribed. Nowadays people by and large want short and quick news. Facebook is worth 500 billion dollars bigger than the GDP of many African countries. Its network spreads right across the world and its overall revenue has grown up by 10 per cent. Its motive is to maximize profits.
There have been allegations against the Facebook that it is showing its bias towards BJP. Questions surface are: Is Facebook, BJP’s mouthpiece? Is Facebook India running pro-Modi propaganda? Does Facebook have right-wing leanings in India? For instance, despite prohibiting hate speeches and Raja Singh, a BJP, MLA, a serial offender of hate speeches banned from Facebook since 2018, but has a following of 16,000 and Kapil Mishra of BJP, despite Zuckerberg’s red policy he has his name in Facebook with 6.2 lakh following.
Facebook defines hate speech as a direct attach on people based on “race, ethnicity, national origin, religious orientation, race, caste, gender, gender identity and serious diseases or disability” or “any posts containing violent or dehumanizing speech, harmful stereotypes, statements of inferiority, or calls for exclusion or segregation.” In this cutting across ideological spectrum there are politicians who prominently figure within the rubric and whose names can easily be identified. Apparently, there are some known for hate speeches in BJP.
Facebook has a Public Policy Team of experts in India who can take action against those who are in their platform violating the terms and conditions even if we were to be the Prime Minister or President by removing their messages by detecting, analyzing and removing them. Recently WhatsApp and Facebook have struck a deal with the Reliance crores of rupees. Facebook desperately needs India to sell hate speeches so that it could maximize profits. Its size and expansion is like a sovereign state. If unchecked it could grow bigger than the nation-states.
The current Facebook storm shows its dubious activity in which it continues to maximize its profits by selling hate speeches and spewing violence. Facebook was involved wooing the electorates in support of one party and also allegations are mounting pointing to its involvement in the last parliamentary elections of India favoring the far-right polity party the BJP. China has banned Facebook. These mega corporations are known to stooping down to the lowest levels - selling hate speech, spreading venom and disharmony just to amass wealth.
Now the media tech oligopolies have become the major problem getting into the political arena openly than before as they control information and medium that disseminates information. They are becoming supra-nation states having no control and behave as entities beyond borders and territories. With their massive capital, assets and global connectivity at their disposal coupled with control of information and technology these oligopolistic corporations reign.
In India Facebook is now in dire straits. It has unfolded the nexus between politics and economics - the closer proximity between the BJP and Facebook. It was brewing for some time and somewhat clear when Facebook and WhatsApp entered into collaborative venture with Reliance Jio - Mukesh Ambani, it became abundantly clear for many. In the months and years to come nation-states would be facing huge problems because they are growing bigger and bigger. As they grow big,they become irresponsible, unaccountable and untamable.
In early 1990s the citadel of global capitalism moved to another phase vis-à-vis corporate capitalism. As a result, it had to face unruly and volatile behavior from the Standard Oil Company. As an oil monopoly it grew bigger and larger in its assets, profits and expansion and eventually elevated as supra entity. It had started to challenge and influence several nation-states by influencing policies and governance. In order to clip its wings, the then United States government passed a legislation by breaking it up into 31 companies and thus made it smaller.
Now digital revolution has created new corporations - the gang of four - Facebook, WhatsApp, Google and Apple. These digital corporations have scant respect for any law because they are much bigger than many nation-states without any country and borders - supra entities. We are caught up in a situation that the post-industrialization has created. Media tech corporations think that they can buy and do whatever they want. Nonetheless, if data is the new evil that wrecks the societal ethos, democracy and governance, then something has to be done.
The global digital oligopolies are playing destructive roles in countries that are most industrialized and technologically advanced. If these digital corporations can undermine these countries including India meddling with governance, polity and democracy, then one could imagine the plight of the less-advanced and poorer countries. These digital corporation have no scruples and do not function on ethical principles. If they can stoop down to selling hatred and spreading fakes news for profits, their only motif is nothing but to maximization of profits.
They rule the world and influence polity and economy of countries. Almost all countries of the world are dependent on them for capital, technology, information, instruments and host of others. We have classic cases of these monopolies that went in overthrowing or even physically liquidating whoever comes in their ways. What then is the way out? A huge section of millennial is totally addicted to social media and its Apps. In such a context we need to increasingly pressure will have to be applied so that they be broken down to smaller units. And so, the Facebook by all means needs to regulated, be made accountable by conforming to the laws of countries they operate.
