Let global principles guide messaging interoperability 

News: On 24th Mar 2022, European negotiators finally agreed on the terms of a new legislation known as the Digital Markets Act. It is a key component of Europe’s new digital strategy.  

What are the objectives of the act? 

It aims to regulate “gatekeepers“, or platforms with a significant presence in Europe in terms of their revenues and European user base.  

It aims to break, at least to some extent, the control of the digital platforms over the markets in which they operate. 

One of the key areas in which regulations are going to focus is going to be interoperability. 

Why has the Digital Markets Act been proposed in Europe? 

There is a clear scenario that some platforms are dominating in their given vertical or field across the globe. They can also to enter and dominate any other adjacent fields.  

For example, US companies have a first-mover advantage on the internet. They are digitally dominating in the European Market. Thus, it is difficult for the domestic players to acquire enough market-share. 

The regulation of the platform economy will loosen the stronghold of the US platforms. It will give smaller companies in adjacent fields a chance to survive. For example, messaging interoperability with smaller messaging apps has been mandated under the law.  

Absence of interoperability has a lot of negative consequences. For example, it reduces choices available to customers. It also affects the overall competitiveness of the market. 

The interoperability at present could result in the immediate degradation of a key feature of modern digital communication. 

What are the problems that would emerge due to interoperability? 

If messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Signal which provide end-to-end encrypted services are integrated with other platforms which do not provide encrypted services, the privacy of communication across the platforms might be affected. 

The interoperability will make it impossible for anyone to offer secure communications at a global scale.  

In addition, various features like spam detection, identification of prohibited speech, etc. will not be able to function if messages are shared with other services. 

Way Forward 

In the future, it might be possible to ensure such privacy across multiple interoperable applications.  

All countries of the world need to come together. They should establish common policy principles that can be imposed on the global technology platforms. 

Source: The post is based on an article “Let global principles guide messaging interoperability” published in the Live Mint on 6th Apr 22.