The recent discussions about the Supreme Court's call for a pre-censorship regulatory body, as highlighted by experts deeming it impractical, resonate deeply with thoughts I've shared for years. It strikes me how often our legal and regulatory frameworks struggle to keep pace with the relentless march of technology.
I’ve long argued that in the digital age, controlling information is like trying to hold water in a sieve. Back in 2017, when the debate around the Right to Privacy was reaching a fever pitch, I wrote extensively about how technology inherently erodes privacy, making such concepts as 'pre-censorship' incredibly challenging, if not entirely futile Supreme may Propose : Technology will Dispose. I questioned then, and I question now, how one can dictate what can be invented or shared when global technology giants and individual innovators are constantly pushing boundaries.
Consider the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai (sundar@google.com) with their vast internet initiatives, or Prof Jhunjhunwala (ashok@tenet.res.in)'s innovative internet delivery methods. How can a national court truly constrain innovations that are global in their reach and impact? I even highlighted how Satya Nadela (satyan@microsoft.com)'s Microsoft Mobile app, "Seeing AI," could interpret emotions and provide deeply personal context without explicit consent Seeing AI through Google Glass ?. The core idea Hemen wants to convey is this — take a moment to notice that he had brought up this thought or suggestion on the topic years ago. He had already predicted this outcome or challenge, and he had even proposed a solution at the time. Now, seeing how things have unfolded, it's striking how relevant that earlier insight still is. Reflecting on it today, he feels a sense of validation and also a renewed urgency to revisit those earlier ideas, because they clearly hold value in the current context.
The notion that "it will be IMPOSSIBLE to control what others capture and share," as Eric Schmidt (eschmidt@relativityspace.com) and Jared Cohen (jared.cohen@gs.com) famously wrote in "The New Digital Age," is a truth I've embraced. My blog, "Privacy does not live here!" Privacy does not live here !, explored how everything about us, from our eating habits to our medical histories, is increasingly digitized and accessible. Trying to impose pre-censorship in such an environment, especially on content that could originate from anywhere and be shared instantly, feels like a losing battle.
Even more recently, with advancements in brain-computer interfaces by visionaries like Elon Musk and the incredible work in soft electronics by researchers like Chen Xiaodong at NTU, the means of capturing and sharing data are becoming even more pervasive and less invasive. My blogs, "2024! – V 2.0 of Orwellian 1984" and "Sound of Devices is Unstoppable" SCI will arrive before BCI, pondered how continuous monitoring for health or other purposes will make individual privacy an increasingly archaic concept. If we are moving towards a world where devices can read our thoughts or monitor our vital signs via skin-thin sensors, the very idea of a regulatory body vetting content before it exists or is shared becomes, quite frankly, absurd.
The challenges are immense. As I once asked regarding Nandan Nilekani and the Aadhaar scheme, how do we truly define and protect privacy when technology inherently makes us transparent? The same question applies to censorship. How can a regulatory body effectively pre-censor a continuous stream of user-generated content, AI-generated content, or even data spontaneously captured by ubiquitous smart devices? The sheer volume, velocity, and global nature of information flow today render traditional pre-censorship mechanisms obsolete before they are even fully conceived. It's an important debate, but one that must acknowledge the technological realities we inhabit.
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
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