You are caught between two who basically don't have your interest in mind. Yeah. In India especially, you know. Like you said, for very different dynamics, the US tech giants don't give a shit about our democracy. And in fact, I don't know, these algorithms throw up and they hear what we're talking about. And actually the problem is that whatever they're doing is just not working for them right now. every you know video that modi puts out it's just meme material for instagram does the government or even meta have the bandwidth to respond to each challenge if they're doing it by the thousands i'm assuming is there a system in place that can technology even handle it or are we in actually a phase where it's the wild west the the problem here is and it's it's very awkward to come to defense of these platforms Meta or Google or anybody but what we are here now seeing is a political economy being built via these platforms and the entire standing committee and Nishika and Dubey's grandstanding he also said Meta is destabilizing democracy. I think the government's thinking is that this has just happened because of Instagram they don't get Instagram, they got WhatsApp. But I think Instagram is a mystery for them. And so I think maybe one arm of the government does think that there's something nefarious happening here. They don't care about freedom of speech. None of these platforms do. They are selling addiction. They've already settled lawsuits in March in California, recently at Kentucky school. I think what the BJP has not looked at, or maybe they can take some, which is actually a bad idea to give them but there is a lot of hate content on Instagram that goes unchecked and that goes viral. Anger is the biggest driver of content. If something can trigger you into anger and rage, it will get shared. The virality was directly proportional to how angry it makes you. We've seen this, this was the exact playbook we had during the farmers protests. when multiple takedown requests were sent for Twitter. Because that is the time when Twitter was being watched out. There was Rihanna's tweet, of course. And then... Three broad points, and you can just elaborate on this. One is several politicians, including Arvind, has shown his, you know, that way Meta is very transparent. It's restricted. They haven't explained why or how. One journalist has also said all the violence that we see that covers are unleashing on shops, vans, vehicles, people that's being taken down or suppressed. And our pieces have been, two of our posts on Instagram have been, are unavailable in India. And we don't know why. What is the law around this? How worrying is it? And does the government or even Meta have the bandwidth to respond to each challenge If they doing it by the thousands I assuming if we personally know of you know over a dozen cases where this is happening Is there a system in place that can technology even handle it? Or are we in actually a phase where it's the Wild West and we have to find some equilibrium going forward? It's quite a Wild West, as you said. There is a censorship apparatus that has been set. And given the number of requests for takedown that the Indian government and Indian agencies send, Meta has to automate them. So in most countries, in most democracies at least, the takedowns are manual because there's a legal setup how to send a request in India. It's a SEO portal. And it's a reasonable number. It's a reasonable number. In India, for the last few years, and the Hindu reported it earlier this year, the takedown requests are doubling by the year. So the takedown requests number is so high that they have to get into automation because manual intervention is not tenable for that large number of takedown requests. and because of that moderation that automated moderation is what they also say is the technical glitch that took down modi's video which is when the entire car broke open what was this video about this was the first reel on july 23rd that uh mr modi posted talking to his friends when he okay okay okay so it was for taken down and for a brief while and then it went up again It was reinstated in five hours once it was brought into focus to Meta. Now, Meta has apologized for that particular issue and not for many other things that random source-based news has leaked out. There's been too much information, and they've used words like paid, specific audience. Meta has apologized for paid content. That is their business model. I don't know why basic due diligence is missing. I mean, I know you care about it all the time. But Meta's business model is getting paid to share the messages to a specific audience. So businesses pay Meta that take my audience to 20-year-olds because this is the product I'm selling. That is their business model. So there's no confession there. There's no issue there. But those words help because paid content, specific audience, those words help hype up the narrative that some journalists, if I may use the word, have been trying to spin this meeting off. But the apology was for takedown, which they said was a technical glitch. The Ministry of Electronics and IT officials didn't really buy that. And so the chief global affairs officer had to fly down and speak to them And he apologized to Ashwini Vaishnava as well I would like to make an important announcement because we are launching the Give Us Our 1947 campaign. As you know, it is going to be Independence Day soon and independence means a lot of things to a lot of us. But one thing about independence I had never really thought of till the brilliant, always insightful josie joseph enlightened me uh when i was interviewing him on his book birth of a nation and he said this you know indian independence as i know i think it has become a cliche for me to say that i think it's the greatest triumph of journalism in human history independence itself yeah every freedom fighter being a journalist gandhi founded four newspapers i've never thought Yeah, Ambedkar IV, Nehru I, Kesari, from the Gadar movement to... You take any movement across India or the world, they may have been, you know, sailors and migrants and doctors and lawyers, but they were all journalists. Journalists who held their pen against the mightiest of the empire, right? And Gandhi was a leading journalist of the time, the most prolific of the guys. the guys. So I didn't realize either a lot of freedom fighters were journalists or many freedom fighters became journalists because it was way to fight for freedom. So as Josie said, India's independence is the biggest feat that journalism has accomplished in the history of the world. And since journalists or people who transition as journalists got us freedom and today's journalism is doing the opposite. We ask you to give us a 1947 back. You freed journalism, just like journalism freed India all those years ago. So we have a special discount, a 1947 subscription. Do subscribe. You also get these stickers. So you can proudly tell the world or you can give it to your friends that you pay to keep news free. It's very important. Think about it, share this with their friends and relatives. In fact, Peak TV's Priyanshi also tweeted, she had put out on Instagram, just an interview with one of the CJP protesters, women protesters who had been hounded, trolled, abuses thrown away, just for just basic reasons that she'd done. So, she'd done an interview and that, you know, woman has gone and spoken to many people, including us. So, Meta pulled that down. And then they pulled it again and again pulled it down. so now there's no explanation for why so many things are just being deleted restricted our own channel we've had three very innocuous videos restricted and i think we were expecting that after this whole cjp protest because i think the government's thinking is that this has just happened because of instagram they don get instagram they got whatsapp but i think instagram is a mystery for them and so i think maybe one arm of the government does think that there something nefarious happening here That how could it have blown out I think it was reported in the news minute that one of the questions asked was that how is it that an upstart like CJP could get more views and followers than traditional opposition parties? Like why is the Congress behind CJP? Yes, there was a real concern in the meeting about why did CJP or student protests have such large number of and basic thing is such large number of likes on anti-government posts. This was one of the questions put out and you're correct. They weren't wondering just about BJP. They were wondering why an upstart like CJP or the student protest videos in general were getting more reach than Congress or any other established political parties. So I think it's such a platform which is alien to them that it was expected that they would clamp down or find ways to control it and arm twist Meta into things. And I think we are going to see more of it because I also feel that all these platforms, ultimately, the way they view India and they do view it as third world, they may look at it as a giant market and all that. But they look at us as let them get what they deserve. So I don't think they're going to fight this freedom of speech fight for us. and which is why I think we need to really keep questioning platforms and why they're removing things where's the transparency where's the accountability because for them it's going to be like okay that's what the government wants you know like we can't do much if your government wants to clamp down it's not something that we can and yeah they don't care one way or the other and they want to do business here that's it yeah so I it's such a sad fact that the government which is governing 1.4 plus billion people doesn't understand Instagram like it takes one day's interview to find four influencers who will jot it down for you what needs to be done the other thing is like you said that's why i sort of it popped into my head when you were talking that they don't care about freedom of speech none of these platforms do they are selling addiction they've already settled lawsuits in march in california recently a kentucky school and today while we are sitting five hours ago they've been ordered by a new mexico judge meta has been ordered for 900 plus million total. Because they knew it was addictive, just like tobacco industry. I remember Jeffrey Weigand came in, one of the media numbers. It's almost just different kind of addiction. They knew it is addictive and they are selling it. But the government of India, look, they see conspiracy in everything because that's their level. I was laughing when Nishikanth Dubey was saying, Madh Zakhar Varga has to apologize in three days. Problem is for people like us and by people like us, I mean, media platforms that are dependent heavily on the internet and social media for our, you know, supply for our distribution. You are caught between.
