Tech platforms from around the world have turned their attention to the India as a new area for user growth. These tech giants are keen to see mass adoption of their products and services by the one-billion-strong Indian market. At the same time, politicians in India have leveraged the platforms’ powers to entrench their own power. In late May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government announced new “IT rules” that give authorities power to ask platforms and digital news media to trace chats, break encryption and block content. The companies must weigh the importance of the Indian market to their bottom line against their users’ right to privacy. 

In this episode of Big Tech, Taylor Owen speaks with Pranav Dixit, tech reporter for BuzzFeed News. Dixit has been reporting on tech-related news in India since 2016. A article for Buzzfeed, “I Thought My Job Was To Report On Technology In India. Instead, I Got A Front-Row Seat To The Decline Of My Democracy,” explored the current platform governance landscape in India. 

Pranav and Taylor discuss how India’s approach to platform governance is similar to that of other Western-style democracies, and how the same rules that can be used to target hate speech can also be used to stifle political dissent.