Google CEO Sundar Pichai kicked off his first home country visit in five years by making the right noises about the government crackdown on Big Tech. But there is more to it than meets the eye.
“Technology needs responsible regulation. It is important for countries to safeguard their citizens,” Pichai said at the Google for India 2022 event in Delhi, where he appeared side by side with union telecommunications, electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
“Technology offers great opportunities, but also brings with it challenges,” said the cabinet minister. After Vaishnaw mentioned the three new laws that the government is bringing in to regulate the country’s digital ecosystem — Telecom Bill, Data Protection Bill and the upcoming Digital India Act, and how many feel that “the same template is needed in many others (countries) that are getting digitised,” Pichai threw his weight behind the initiative.
“It is an important phase and we are engaging constructively,” Pichai said, adding that “it is important to make sure you’re balancing…putting in safeguards for people (as well as) a framework so that companies can innovate on top of certainty in the legal framework. Through it, India can be a big export economy that benefits from an open and connected internet."
“(But) getting that balance right will be important,” Pichai warned.
While the three bills do not per se harshly target Big Tech companies like Google and Meta (parent of Facebook and WhatsApp), there are worries within the search engine giant on how the implementation will play out and how stringently the clauses will work out practically. Adding to the worries have been the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) two recent tranches of penalties on the company for abusing its dominant position in the Android smartphone operating system, as well as its stranglehold on the PlayStore of apps on the Android platform.
The Rs 2,274 crore penalty slapped on Google comes on the heels of similar adverse verdicts in countries ranging from Australia to France that have formed a pattern of governments and regulatory bodies taking on the unbridled growth and influence of Big Tech seen over the past decade.
While it is almost certain that Google will appeal against the order and the case could drag on for some time, it has also been perturbed by other legislations — beside the three umbrella bills Vaishaw spoke about, there is also a social media intermediary rule that targets how the big companies run social media. There is also a case pending against sharing of news filed by Indian media entities, after action by Australian courts on a similar matter.
There is possibly a chance that during Pichai’s visit, Google will try to use its plans to manufacture its Google Pixel smartphones in India as a bargaining chip. After Apple started manufacturing its phones in India, the Indian government is pretty keen to get Google also to do the same, as part of a larger narrative to project India as a manufacturing hub alternative to China.
Shut out of the Chinese market, India is the biggest digital market for the global tech industry in numbers -- more than 70 crore Indians already use the internet, while the future growth potential is unparalleled.
After pushing the union government to withdraw its original plan to insist on the local storage of data, Big Tech and multinationals would no doubt now try to ensure that the provisions of the three upcoming bills (as well as related sector-specific regulations the government is planning for the internet economy) are ‘light touch’ enough for their liking. The long period given for public consultations for the two bills already out (Digital India Act is expected to be out in the new year) thus augurs well for those hoping for the same.