{"id":218870,"date":"2022-12-17T19:33:42","date_gmt":"2022-12-17T14:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=218870"},"modified":"2022-12-17T19:36:04","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T14:06:04","slug":"how-to-ensure-that-the-internet-remains-accessible-to-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-to-ensure-that-the-internet-remains-accessible-to-all\/","title":{"rendered":"How to ensure that the internet remains accessible to all"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cHow to ensure that the internet remains accessible to all\u201d <\/strong>published in The Indian Express <\/strong>on 17th December 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Awareness in the field of IT<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>–\u00a0 Issue related to accessibility of internet<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– The article explains the need to ensure a level playing field in the context of evolving technologies in digital space.<\/p>\n

Why is there a need for regulating the emerging digital space?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To enable access<\/strong> to the internet, v<\/strong>arious gateways<\/strong> have come up in the last few decades in the form of telecom service providers, personal computers and smartphones, operating systems.<\/p>\n

However, when these gateways enable and restrict access<\/strong> to other gateways or networks, the openness of the internet is threatened. They then shift roles from being a facilitator to a regulator<\/strong>, from being a gateway to a gatekeeper<\/strong>. Hence, the need for a code of conduct or regulation<\/strong> arises to keep the playing field level and accessible<\/strong> to all.<\/p>\n

In case of India, example of the enforcement of this code on providers Indian government policy on Net Neutrality<\/strong>. It ensured that we took a democratic stance against Big Tech. Without this policy, we would have seen the internet being partitioned into walled gardens controlled by telcos and Big Tech companies.<\/p>\n

What are the issues related to accessibility of emerging digital space?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Digital technologies<\/strong> are evolving at a very fast rate. The code of conduct and regulations can\u2019t catch up with the new gateway providers that are emerging.<\/p>\n

The two prominent operating systems, Google and Apple<\/strong>, enjoy a lion\u2019s share of the app store market. They brought in good practices to ensure basic hygiene<\/strong> for smartphone applications, maintained quality benchmarks<\/strong>, and safeguarded the interests of their users.<\/p>\n

Various practices of these distribution platforms have come into question lately. These range from restrictions on payment gateways, advertising choices, app policies<\/strong> and various other aspects of an application or business that could be considered discriminatory in both principle and practice.<\/p>\n

In March, a report placed before the Competition Commission of India<\/strong> found Google Play Store\u2019s payments policy \u201cunfair and discriminatory\u201d<\/strong>. Google Play Store and Apple\u2019s App Store<\/strong>, are said to be charging up to 30% commission on payments processed.<\/p>\n

Google and Apple have garnered unilateral control<\/strong> over the publishing of smartphone applications on their OS. Various smartphone application-dependent businesses and developers continue to remain vulnerable to such internal business policy changes<\/strong> on these platforms.<\/p>\n

What are the steps by various governments for regulating digital space?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The European Union has recently enacted the Digital Markets Act<\/strong>. Its regulations aim to keep digital markets innovative and open to competition<\/strong>, through ex-ante regulation<\/strong>. It will prohibit the implementation of the most harmful anti-competitive practices<\/strong> by the largest digital platforms.<\/p>\n

The Indian government has taken steps to maintain its sovereignty<\/strong> through the path-breaking and disruptive digital public goods<\/strong> it has created. Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, and CoWIN are just a few examples.<\/p>\n

What is the way forward?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The need of the hour for the government to devise appropriate regulations<\/strong> to ensure a level playing field and not let the innovating gateways turn into gatekeepers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cHow to ensure that the internet remains accessible to all\u201d published in The Indian Express on 17th December 2022. Syllabus: GS3- Awareness in the field of IT Relevance–\u00a0 Issue related to accessibility of internet News– The article explains the need to ensure a level playing field in… Continue reading How to ensure that the internet remains accessible to all<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10500],"class_list":["post-218870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704879374},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}