India's long history of subjugation continues to have profound impacts on Indian society , culture and the way of life. It is apparent that total domination by a colonial power has effects that withstand the test of time. On a a global level, the recession of colonial rule and the establishment of independent sovereign states was a typical sign of of an era , and the dawn of a new one .
The dawn of the capitalist system and the spread of free market ideals led to the creation of a more insidious form of domination, subjugation and colonial oppression.
This new form, characterized by the decentralized extraction , processing and use of data without explicit consent ( or with unclearly inferred consent ) by Western companies , organizations and governments , with the goal of social or economic domination is broadly called digital colonialism (Kwet, 2021).
The West's civilizing mission deems nations of the Global South incapable of handling data without mandates set by them . The uncivilized nations of the global south are perceived as threats to the digital sovereignty and peace of the referent object i.e. the West. The threat - defense mantra further makes digital security and wellbeing a state affair , extracting the agency of the people. The individual is not given a say in how their digital profile is governed, even while they make up the true focal points of analysis. The highly state - led nature of digital security leaves nations and people vulnerable to attacks their privacy and digital sovereignty. The techno - scientific corporations of the west tend to leverage this vulnerability by gaining precedented access to the data of people . State - led data protection
initiatives increasingly appears to be an oxymoron considering the cross border data flows facilitated by the West.
This new form of colonialism is best seen under a post colonial lens as it allows the frame of reference to play a vital role in how we perceive modern day data protection , and regulation initiatives . The spread of railroads , an experience fresh in the minds of postcolonial scholars can the be seen in similarity to the spread of giant social media conglomerates and the power they wield in political matters of nations outside their home (Kwet, 2019). The term 'multi - national company' itself is a testament to the new form
of dominance. Tarak Barkawi's analogy of a 'small war' being fought in parts of the world other than the West, manifests itself in this context as the West's extended surveillance and deep rooted dependencies it has created within countries (2004).
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There is therefore a need to expand the ambit of security and securitization studies to include a holistic view of how basic needs play an important role in the realm of the digital. Security in this realm therefore does not only constitute cyber threats to state infrastructure , but also threats to individual rights . The scope of security must therefore be expanded, and seen as protecting threats to basic human needs of survival , development , freedom and identity (Waever, 1995). In the realm of the digital, security issues do not only constitute cyber threats to state infrastructure, but also threats to individual rights. When the individual gets subsumed by the 'international' interests, digital privacy comes under threat. Security studies needs to look at how critical infrastructure is taken over and sourced by the West , leading to dependencies. The United States and the European Union's relatively robust frameworks of data protection accurately represent unequal access to digital rights in this 'North South' divide. A comparison of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation and the unclear Indian Digital Personal Data Protection Bill demonstrates how colonial legacy can lead to fears of further domination , leading to extensive and undemocratic state centralization of data.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kwet, M. (2019, March 13). Digital colonialism is threatening the Global South. Al Jazeera. Retrieved March 17, 2024, from https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/3/13/digital-colonialism-is-threatening-the-global-south
Kwet. (2021, March 4). Digital colonialism: The evolution of US empire. Longreads. Retrieved March 17, 2024, from https://longreads.tni.org/digital-colonialism-the-evolution-of-us-empire
Barkawi. (2004, January). On the Pedagogy of “Small Wars.” International Affairs, 80(1).
Waever (Ed.). (1995, October 13). Securitization and Desecuritization. In On Security. https://doi.org/10.1604/9780231102704
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