Deccan Herald: Pune: Sunday, June 10, 2018.
Starting with
the bid to convert the Aadhaar identity into a surveillance tool, the
government has begun to build a whole infrastructure of surveillance and
monitoring of almost every aspect of citizens’ lives. The I&B ministry’s
Social Media Communication Hub proposal is only the latest such move by the
government, says Dr Reetika Khera, Associate Professor (Economics and Public
Systems) at IIM-Ahmedabad, in an interview with Shemin Joy of DH. Excerpts:
Why should
we be worried about the government looking into our social media feeds?
The clearest
answer to this question in recent times has come from (the American
whistleblower) Edward Snowden. The right to privacy is nothing but the freedom
of speech. He said, “Saying you don’t care about privacy because you have
nothing to hide is like saying you don’t care about free speech because you
have nothing to say.”
Are we on
the way to becoming a surveillance state with Aadhaar, chipsets in our TV
set-top boxes that tell the I&B ministry what we are viewing and now the
proposed social media monitoring hub?
Every day,
one hears about the new uses that governments and corporations want to put
these technologies to: monitoring the behaviour of citizens in China through
its social crediting system (do they jaywalk, do they pay bills on time, etc.,)
to grade and rank citizens, drones being taught to spot violent behaviour in
crowds, etc. One certainly gets the sense that we are coming closer to living
in the dystopic world of ‘Black Mirror’ (a Netflix series).
Throughout
history, States have always used whatever tools of control are at their
disposal. The new technologies, including social media, have afforded an
unprecedented opening to the State to escalate such control. Therefore, I am
not surprised that they try to concentrate power in their hands through
technologies such as Aadhaar, social media monitoring hubs, etc., to discipline
and control people. What is surprising and disappointing is that we learn so
little from history.
A stated goal
of the social media hub is to mould public perception about the government and
to inculcate ‘nationalistic feelings’ in citizens…
The new
technologies that have taken our lives by storm receive a lot of good press. In
fact, there is a dark side to these technologies (including their use in
weapons), which is only now beginning to get some attention. These technologies
are double-edged. They have a democratising potential, but they also have the
potential to concentrate power. What is shocking is that these technologies of
social and political control are being allowed (even welcomed by some) in
India, despite our our being a democracy.
Are we
just scared or are we over-reacting. Are these technologies a real threat?
I do not
think that we are over-reacting; if anything, we have had a delayed reaction.
Yet, I do not think it is too late. For example, in 2002, the Vajpayee
government passed a wholly inadequate ‘Freedom of Information Act’. Through
public pressure, consensus-building and other democratic means, in 2005, it was
replaced by a much stronger law, the RTI Act. The main threat arises from the the
coercive and ubiquitous use of Aadhaar. The coercion is necessary because,
contrary to the government’s assertion, Aadhaar is a nuisance for ordinary
people and brings next to no benefits to them.
Is our
development paradigm lopsided with this sort of surveillance state?
Development
and surveillance just cannot go together. Development means freedom.
Surveillance, on the other hand, is the anti-thesis of freedom.
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