Do, or Do not, but ask why?

(If you read that title in Yoda’s voice, then congratulations. If you didn’t, then this image is an attempt to Jedi mind-trick you)

The last decade has been especially rough if you live in India, and care deeply about now seemingly controversial values like inclusiveness, tolerance or ideas like the rule of law, due-process, and that those in positions of power should be held to account, and indeed, to higher standards, of behaviour. Or if you believe in not harbouring a range of negative emotions from disliking to hating someone just because of their identities / the fact that they belong to different communities.¹²

Any way you look at it, next week promises to be a milestone in this journey. We could be in for testing times. At IFF, where I work, I’ve asked everyone to use this week to think deeply about why we’re here, and why we’re doing what we do, when so many of us could be off doing other things.

What is the purpose we are trying to fulfil?

Now, no one is going to be forced to share this, people can volunteer to do so. I did, however, think it is important that I share what I write/think about this. And, when I sat down to write it/them up, it also made sense to make it public. Now, this could change over time (as it has in the past). But going into June 2024, this is where I am:

1. I want a more humane society

Ultimately, it is this. I may not embody this motivation in every step I take, or in every move I make, but it is there (watching me?). How can we ensure we don’t take away people’s agency? How can we ensure their dignity is not compromised? How can we be kind to others, whether we know them or not - not rushing to judgements with limited context? How can we resolve tensions amicably? How can we (try to) empathise with others, even those who hold views, and may even do things we find abhorrent (this one, I am a little conflicted about, the clarification I’ll make is that I’m not implying we condone such views/actions, just that making an attempt to understand them is vital to identify and address any underlying causes)? What drives people towards, and then makes them hold on to hateful beliefs, how do these networks grow — and what can we do to change this?

2. I want to learn, ask questions, and encourage others to do this as well…

I don’t know when this happened, but somewhere along the way, I decided that one of my life’s goals was to know everything about everything. I’m also not sure why, maybe it is so that I can make connections across things, or get myself to see past my own biases. I’m not doing too well on this front, I’m afraid. I know very little/nothing about lots of things, and some things about a few things (aside: a ‘fun’ thing I do on social media, is look through people’s posts, including mine, and try to identify the bias each post is displaying :D).

What helps with this, is (often forcing myself) to ask basic/fundamental questions - why does this happen; how is this new thing different from what is already happening / has happened in the past; what needs to change; if we change ‘a’, will it make things better, or will something else go wrong, and so on. This is can be both paralysing and clarifying, but like a certain panda that did kung fu - one has to find their balance.

3. I struggle, but try to understand how technology is impacting society, and the values associated with its deployment

So far, you could have been forgiven for thinking “what the hell does anything have to do with digital rights?” - well, I finally have one for you.

This aspect is strongly influenced by the fact that I was always slightly geeky (in school, I used to have late night epiphanies about how to write C++ code!), underwent a technical education (although, today, if you ask me to describe, in detail, the working of a 555 timer circuit, I’ll probably just run away), and worked in the technology industry for a long time. It also helped that I quit my first-ever job and ended up editing a blog about Web, Advertising and Technology blog for some time. And, over the course of my next job, happened to work on jurisdictions like China and Russia. Globally, smartphone adoption grew, and slowly, but surely, the devices that were sold with the promise of empowering us, were also turning into our personal Hotel California’s (sure, we could [try to] check out anytime we liked, but we couldn’t leave). In parallel, India started its own digitalisation wave, startups (with questionable workplace cultures) were becoming soonicorns, unicorns, decacorns (please stop this!). And with time, some of the fine gentlemen in the spotlight (because, mostly it is them who are in the spotlight) started espousing either protectionist values of generations past, or a no-holds-barred-growth-at-all-costs-consequences-and-negative-externalities-be-damned mindset, or some combination, thereof. ³

And over the years, this has also prompted me to question / think about the kind of values being introduced to society, what they might change - what gets better, what gets worse, who benefits, etc. For eg. Why do certain ‘community management’ apps require house help, delivery personnel, etc. to take photographs, but not ‘guests’? Why do certain job functions need to take ‘selfies’ to record attendance, while others don’t? What does this ‘innovation’ mean for the agency of a person at the other end of it? Or who is constantly in the ears to law enforcement agencies pushing them to adopt surveillance technologies, instead of reforms that evolves the policing function to truly serve people in the country - compared to whatever it is today. I could go on for years with such examples, but you won’t read them, so I’ll stop :).

1 + 2 + 3 = ?

So when I put these 3 things together, it solidifies, in my mind, why I do what I do - and why I value both, doing it, and having the opportunity to do it. Working on digital rights, today, which advocates for a more equitable, just and humane existence for all sections of society (even if I am not able to directly bring that into my work all the time) involves studying/understanding developments around the country and the world, taking a step back and asking critical questions, critiquing conventional wisdom and moral panics, attempting to hold powerful people accountable for their choices.

And above all - encouraging more people to understand how these changes effect them (i.e. not always giving them answers and explanations, but pushing them to ask questions), so that they can come together, as a community, and demand better things for all of us.

It also helps justify some of the harder tradeoffs that come with this choice ⁴.