Most things in life are complex. So it should come as no surprise that for every legitimate social or public policy issue, there are corresponding financial interests. That simply cannot be escaped. Efforts to place obstacles in the path of firms such as Google, Facebook or Amazon are the result of concerns over monopoly, to be sure.’
But the opposition also comes from business competitors who hope to benefit, governments who fear their countries will once again be left behind as the internet ecosystem reaches its next stage, or that the economic benefits of leadership in any area related to advanced technology, computing, communications or applications will be concentrated in China and the United States.
That is the formal reason the Indian government will issue new policies to prevent foreign firms from dominating India’s internet ecosystem.
India, for a variety of reasons (huge internal market, developed state of its information technology industries) might be among the few countries that could hope to do so. India is big enough that it could effectively wall off its internal internet from the global internet, if it chose to do so.
That is why new rules on “privacy” also are weapons for countries that hope such measures will slow down the U.S. and Chinese firms.
Many worry about trade wars. This one is real, as viewed by many governmental leaders. There are legitimate public policy issues at stake, of course. But there also are perceived economic advantages at stake, as well.
India is among the few countries globally that could follow the Chinese model of walling of the global and open internet.
