Government’s push for regulating Google, Facebook is ill advised; people will pay for it

The Government of India is really focused on regulating the tech companies – whether it’s e-commerce norms that have upended the businesses of Amazon and Flipkart, data localization threats, changes to existing IT act, or privacy regulation. There is a very strong nationalist message behind it.

By regulating tech sector, which is currently dominated by US and Chinese tech companies, the Indian government wants to be seen as saviors for small businesses and Indian tech companies. They also want to gain access to user data for “national security” seasons. What the government isn’t talking about or likely isn’t thinking about is the price Indian users will have to pay if and when these regulations take their full effect.

Let’s take the example of data localization and privacy regulation and what it will mean for India’s favorite video platform, YouTube.