Amid the continued “weaponisation” of the internet by some Big Tech platforms during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict is bringing back the focus on the sweeping powers of social media platforms. India is readying a new cybersecurity and data governance framework. These actions by Big Tech companies put into perspective and call for a renewed focus on an “Atmanirbhar internet” call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which laid focus on reducing dependency on services being provided by these global firms. There are some Russian banks and their subsidiaries being banned from the international SWIFT network, it was due to the focus of the government’s self-build initiatives that the country now had alternatives to these global arrangements if India ever found itself in a similar position. If we were depending on SWIFT alone, we are gone. But we have UPI, fintech platforms in India that have reduced our reliance on a SWIFT type of an international money transfer platform. We are seeing through our thinking of Atma Nirbhar Bharat that we should not depend on the Indian internet being controlled or influenced by these big tech platforms alone. Such actions by companies, countries and big tech platforms, which have taken “positions that are very partisan”, are resulting in a “splinter-net”. Two phenomena are very visible: one is weaponization of the internet of which we were aware of in some sense. The second is the phenomenon of the splinter-net.

The internet is increasingly being splintered, driven by the power of some Western countries. These platforms have now become dominant and in the event of a conflict between two sovereigns, they are being weaponized and there are no laws that would prevent this.,” Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, companies, countries, Big Tech platforms and intermediaries have announced a slew of sanctions which have e.