EDITORIAL ANALYSIS : A global order as technology’s much needed pole star

Source: The Hindu

Prelims: Dot com, G20, meta platforms, blockchain, crypto currency, Voice Technology (VT), 5G etc
Mains GS Paper III: Linkage of organized crimes with terrorism, implications of cybercrimes on security etc

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS

Since the burst of Dot-com bubble 2000, the rapid scale and pace of development of technology have radically and disruptively transformed our societies and daily lives.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context

Dot com Bubble:

The dot-com bubble or Internet Bubble was a speculative bubble during the 1995–2000 with a climax in 2000.
The stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the Internet sector and related fields.
Reason: steady commercial growth of the Internet with the advent of the world wide web.

Challenges to notion of nation-state with present technology:

The fundamental notion of a nation-state of a geographical unit in which citizens live is undergoing a massive change because of technology.
There are several externalities occurring across the borders of nation-states, i.e. cyber-attacks,
- They have a ripple effect on the physical boundaries to challenge their socio-economic and political existence.
The advent of Web3, massive peer-to-peer networks and blockchains has allowed actors(state and non-state) to influence areas such as trade, commerce, health and education even while remaining outside of financial and judicial scope.
Geography-based rules are no longer easily enforceable simply because of the declining significance of conventional geographical borders in the era of high technology.
Any form of “virtual activity” is not confined to the realms of the borders of a country
- Data travels on the chain of the world wide web and spreads across the world at speed hitherto unimaginable.
When any activity falls foul of the laws of a particular geographically-determined nation-state.
- It is extremely difficult in the absence of a globally-accepted norm
  - To enforce the law in that particular geography and book the recalcitrant actors under the laws of the nation-state.
- It is difficult to collect incontrovertible evidence without cooperation from other geographies.
The national sovereignty of countries is challenged by activities beyond their physical boundaries.
- Their existing constitutionally set-up institutions comprising the executive, legislature and judiciary proves inadequate in tackling them.
It is also difficult to establish applicability of any country-specific legislation due to the universal q1 nature of technology, leading to problems in enforceability.
The emergence of newer technologies has exposed the incapacity and inability of the government of the nation-state to administer and regulate these technologies.
The nation-state is no longer the only conduit through which multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations and supranational organizations, both legitimate and illegitimate, state and non-state actors, need to operate.
- These entities have transcended physical boundaries to collaborate with the rest of the world, independent of traditional administrative and regulatory institutions.
- For example: topographical maps, which used to be produced by public and military institutions, are now available entirely by private non-state actors, such as Apple or Google Maps.

Challenges on the economic side:

With a valuation of more than $4,100 billion, the five largest American tech companies (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft) have surpassed Germany’s GDP (the world’s fourth largest economy) in terms of valuation”.
Important levers of these companies are data and their use.

Data:

Data has become the most important raw material of our times, and only a handful of companies now hold unparalleled economic power and influence over it.
Meta-platforms: their huge size allows them to constantly increase the amount of information they analyze and refine the algorithms they use to influence, if not control, us and our activities”.

Way Forward

India at various international fora: The borderless nature of technology, and anonymity of actors involved, have challenged the traditionally accepted concepts of sovereignty, jurisdiction/regulation, and privacy”.
- A principle-based global order for technology would help in:
  - streamlining the enforceability challenges in the adoption and diffusion of technology.
  - Providing guidance to emerging economies on how to deal with the evolving definitions of their sovereignty.
- As In case of the COVID-19 pandemic, the way forward in managing future global pandemics is probably by the adoption of digital health.
- India needs a data transfer and data privacy law: But these laws, in isolation, will only be able to do so much unless a global principle-based regulation architecture trusted by all countries facilitates it.
- Finance Minister while addressing a meeting with the International Monetary Fund on the guidelines of a G-20 event on virtual private digital assets
  - Emphasized the need to have a globally-coordinated approach to the regulation of digital assets such as crypto-currencies, given the potential risks they pose to the world’s financial ecosystem.
- With India, as the current chair of the G-20, this is the perfect opportunity to take leadership in this as it has done earlier in green initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance or the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.