Freedom and technology: marching ahead

INDIA: Imagine how different the legendary Dandi March would have been, had sensors, wearables and social-media tools been around.

While you chew that thought, we give you some more cud.

Haven’t you noticed how life has become more independent emotionally, physically, financially, intellectually and in terms of every other illy in just a matter of few years?

Look at what happened since 2005.

There is now an actual mandate like the Right to Information Act where Indian citizens can demand transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, and keep necessary vigil on the instruments of governance and make the government more accountable to the governed.

When in 2006, the accused in the Jessica Lall case were acquitted by the courts they never expected the strong public outcry against the decision, that a concerted media campaign bolstered heavily with SMS activism, online revolution, televised debates, public vigils and protests.

Protests and marches have taken a new shade of social since then, whether it was the nation-stirring Anna Hazare galvanizing that rocked online in India or the illustrious Arab Spring in the Middle East.

When India witnessed a similar public outcry on the debate of Net Neutrality, it was not hard to fathom why.

Technology, be it social networking or Internet’s quintessential philosophy–have found strong anchors around the notions of democracy. It is not just a tool good fighting with but a cause worth fighting for.

1940 or 2014—Information, A cause worth a revolution

In a list of 12 nations as per Pew Research report last year, at least seven-in-ten held the view that government censorship on Internet is not such a good idea. When the likes of the Electronic Frontier Foundation work strongly defending civil liberties in the digital world, and champion notions like user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroot activism, and technology development, it becomes clear that information has acquired wider and deeper connotations that any other form of power has ever done.

Today citizen journalism is not a novelty anymore. Activists are resorting to digital forces for organizing, debating, planning, and broadcasting unimaginable levels of co-ordination and revolutions.

Whether it is the use of social media around the death of Michael Brown at Ferguson this week or what Egypt witnessed with Twitter in its fight against decades of oppression and despotism around 2011, deploying live-tweets, streams, blogging protests has amplified grassroot movements like never before.

What uprisings witnessed in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan is not merely a glimpse of use of technology’s prowess, but a sign of the dear cost to be paid when one looks down upon its silent powers - just what those regime-rulers finally discovered as their empires crumbled in face of a public rebellion.

The real power of technology is something the surface of which is being barely scratched even now.

Everyday mutiny

Look at some other figures by Pew Research. Its 2015 report unveils that for Americans aged 65 and older who own a smart phone, having one in their pocket is kind of a liberating experience.

On the question that does their phone represent freedom or a leash, 82 percent of smart phone-owning seniors described their phone as freeing. In fact, in 2014 too, over half of online seniors indicated using Facebook (56 percent of online adults ages 65 and older that year, up from 45 percent a year before) re-affirming the consistent rise of Internet use and broadband adoption among older adults.

Or look at what made the Red Light Application campaign grab a Cannes trophy for Y&R in Istanbul. It equipped women against domestic violence in Turkey in a new and path-breaking manner by using technology. This just goes on to illustrate how safety apps are gaining traction and attention for strengthening a female’s independence.

Technology in healthcare, defence areas, science and education.

Technology for women, senior citizens, for frustrated citizens, for eager and cause-bound citizens.

Technology for making the world around right, better, neater, fairer and friendlier.

Yes, it’s happening. What revolutions like the Boston Massacre of March 1770, the Bastille in Paris in July 1789, or the mutiny of 1857 lacked is here today.

In the loud-ringing words of Google Executive and activist Wael Ghonim: “If you want to liberate a country, give them the Internet.”

If only we do not forget the bigger power that our historical revolutions still had–the invincible spirit within!

Because without that, it becomes impossible to imagine any Dandi March- then, now, ever.