Indians matter

Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Congressional hearing has failed to address concerns of millions of Indian users who are still in the dark about how their data was misused and by whom. Zuckerberg did not make any attempt to assure Indian Facebook users that their data will be safeguarded in the future, either during the hearing or elsewhere. This is despite the fact that India has overtaken the US to become Facebook’s largest market with nearly 250 million users. For millions of Indians, the discovery of Internet itself happens through Facebook as the platform offers networking, information sharing and entertainment on a smartphone. It would have been prudent on Zuckerberg’s part to address these users to tell them why they are important for Facebook. Instead, the Facebook founder chose to speak about how they will ensure free and fair elections in India. Zuckerberg should know that the responsibility of holding fair elections in India rests with the Election Commission of India. That Zuckerberg chose to appear only before the US lawmakers even though his company influences socio-political behaviour in other parts of the world, including India, smacks of double standards. Technology leaders like him expound the philosophy of blurring geographical lines in a digitally connected world but when it comes to facing the law, it seems only American rules apply.

For far too long, some US companies that run their business over the Internet in India have escaped local laws stating that since their physical infrastructure does not exist in this country they are answerable only to US lawmakers. Indian authorities should also be held responsible for looking the other way and not insisting on compliance with local requirements. After the Facebook data breach came to light, the Minister for Electronics and IT, very emphatically claimed that he would summon Zuckerberg to India. But after that initial bluster, the Centre has gone quiet. This is despite a disappointing response by Facebook to the show-cause issued by the Centre. Washing its hand off the data breach, the social media platform blamed Cambridge Analytica for accessing data without authorisation. There was no clarity on whether data from Indian user accounts have been compromised or misused, accessed for what purpose and whether there are other third party applications on Facebook that have been doing the same. The company did spell out its strategy to ensure that a similar data breach does not happen in the future. But Indian users deserve more than that.

It is high time that the Centre conveys a clear message to Facebook that Indians matter. It should hold a public hearing with Facebook’s leadership team and ask tough questions on its business model and data protection rules. Transparency and accountability will have to become the basis for Facebook to rebuild trust with its users. A mere apology is not enough.

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