By Marion Goetze & Michal Gerov <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disruptive technologies, demagogic governance: Data (un)democracy in India during COVID-19<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the article, Disruptive technologies, demagogic governance<\/em>, India is viewed as a down-graded democracy due to some events that occurred during the pandemic. The country has been focussing on a deterministic use of technology and possibly violating human rights by doing so (EngageMedia, 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, the government began using AI surveillance systems for policing and control. In Hyderabad, in which some of the largest multinational technology companies are located, the government has placed roughly 600,000 CCTV cameras around the city and is using AI based facial recognition technology (FRT) in conjunction with these cameras (2022). However, various policing agencies are misusing the software and incorrectly tagging people as criminals targeting specific neighbourhoods under the guise of identifying people who breach pandemic social rules (2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n A second area of concern is that the government is collecting data using a biometric program called CoWIN (app) that was introduced to the public as the only way to vaccinate India\u2019s population, however, access to this app excluded most of India\u2019s rural population because only about 35 % have internet leaving many without the choice of informed consent (2022).\u00a0Furthermore, instead of CoWIN functioning as a public and open resource, activists accused the company of \u2018open-washing\u2019 whereby a company \u201cpresents an initiative as open-source but does not meet all the criteria of openness\u201d (para. 7, 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n A third area of concern is data governance; initially India wished to govern non-personal data, but the Personal Data Protection Bill introduced in 2018 and revised in 2019, stipulated that the government could access private data by claiming that it is for national security or for public order keeping (2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The media being presented in the article, CCTV cameras, FRT and CoWIN are being used to perpetuate the caste system in India, mine personal data from its citizens, surveil the populations of large cities, such as Hyderabad as well as misrepresent what the data collected is being used for. However, Clark (1993) may state that other types of media or media attributes may be able to do the same thing; mine information, watch, listen and police its people. By using television ads, newspapers, billboards or other media, the same message could be conveyed; that the cameras and the FRT are there to keep citizens safe. However, the government would not be able to surveil its people without these technologies to begin with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kozma (1994) would most likely contend that by using CCTV cameras, FRT and limiting access to apps, that India\u2019s government is nefariously but cleverly using media to influence how its citizens give up their privacy under the guise of security and order. Kozma (1994) stated that perhaps we should ask \u201cnot do,<\/em> but will<\/em> media influence learning\u201d (p. 7, 1994). If we fail to attempt to make a connection between media and learning theories, if we never understand how media can influence how we see things or how we come to learn things, then we are likely never to understand this relationship. Therefore, we may succumb to being manipulated by our own government.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to an interview with Jason \u0100. Josephson Storm, Professor of Religion and Chair of Science and Technology Studies at Williams College (Gkiola, 2022), the humanities and social sciences have been mostly controlled by a system known as methodological individualism. This is the idea that any description of learning within the humanities or social sciences needed to be ascribed to the decisions or attitudes of an individual, not a group (2022). This makes it difficult to predict societal changes at the group, government or company level. Storm proposes the theory of Social Kinds which is that humans have the ability to create \u2018things\u2019 that have powers and capacities that we ourselves don\u2019t have on our own (2022). We can create institutions, companies and organizations as well as artifacts. For example, the Supreme Court cannot be explained if you think that all of its attributes are just the attitudes of nine people. There is an institutional hierarchy that is necessary to understand that the Supreme Court goes beyond any individual; it encompasses objects including texts, organizations, laws, rules and so on (2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having knowledge of the media debate can help us to critique and question the claims made by people in not only the educational technology industry but by our governments as well. When we understand how media and technology can be misused, then we are better equipped to understand and deal with any repercussions or at least, try to prevent them from happening to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n