India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet

Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by boh on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:11AM (#34775376)

The main priority of "Big tech" is profitability not freedom. They're not "giving in" as much as they're following a business model to maximize revenue. Ultimately internet censorship will benefit the biggest companies who are able to keep up with the regulations. It will effectively grant them unofficial monopolies as smaller companies struggle to keep up.

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Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by themitigating on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:19AM (#34775499)

What does this have to do with the article on the Indian government increasing control of the internet?

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Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by supriyo-biswas on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:22AM (#34775547)

A corporation trying to align with a specific belief system would mean some countries would fall outside of it.

This leaves them with two choices - either they stop doing business in said countries, or maximize profits by conducting business in those countries by loosening their belief system to include the countries' negatives, such as censorship of political discourse in this case.

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Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by managerclass on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:41AM (#34775861)

I guess my question is if US tech companies don't comply with the Indian government and gets shut down, wouldn't an identical company who will comply with the Indian government just take its place?

The censorship is taking place either way right? Why not take the money?

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Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by supriyo-biswas on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:52AM (#34776073)

Yes, and this is exactly why companies decide to stay in business in said regions and focus on what they do best - continue to offer products and services (or "maximize shareholder value" if you're cynical).

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Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by themitigating on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:24AM (#34775583)

Yes, companies have to adhere to the laws of a country or stop doing business there. The blame lies with the Indian Government

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Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:45AM (#34775947)

OP is arguing that they should choose to stop doing business instead of adhere to the laws.

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Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by themitigating on Monday February 13, 2023 @06:09PM (#34782300)

The article is about the Indian government not tech companies, stop encouraging this obvious deflection

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Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by layer8 on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:33AM (#34775747)

The article’s subheading is “The Modi administration keeps giving itself new powers, and Big Tech keeps giving in.”

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Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by vijaybritto on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:16AM (#34775439)

IMO I dont think this is true. If that was the case then big tech wouldn't have closed shop in Russia for their crimes.

Their morality is just conditional

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Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by supriyo-biswas on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:20AM (#34775521)

Their morality is guided by the Overton window[1] of what most customers and employees find acceptable.

Being based out of mostly western countries, corporations like Google and Microsoft found the belief system of quitting Russian business initiatives as most acceptable to the public, and hence executed that plan. A western worldview where it may have been more acceptable for Russia to initiate a war would have resulted in a different outcome.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

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Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by hef19898 on Monday February 13, 2023 @11:19AM (#34775497)

One word: sanctions. And breaking those is expensive in more than one way.

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Re:India’s Government Wants Total Control of the Internet by foverzar on Monday February 13, 2023 @12:22PM (#34776678)

> big tech wouldn't have closed shop in Russia for their crimes

Do you really believe big tech cared about some wArCrImEs, instead of getting a call from their lobbyist/investor/gov.account advising them to play along, or else?

JFYI, YouTube (and the whole of Google) is still operational in Russia, I can still use my iPhone, pay for iCloud, and buy a new one as soon as I want.

Business is business, I don't understand why people ever suppose it would be fighting for their political goals.

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