India becoming ‘digital superpower’, says Meta’s Policy President

*Nick Clegg, Meta’s President for Global Policy Affairs, in a recent exclusive interview, discloses there is increasing awareness that India plays a unique role in the digital ecosystem and that the country is on its way to becoming a ‘digital superpower’

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Nick Clegg, Meta’s President for Global Policy Affairs, has stated that India’s take on digital issues is “refreshingly straightforward”.

Clegg told ETtech in an exclusive interview, that the country is “on route to becoming a digital superpower” and that in some respects, it already is.

ConsumerConnect learnt Clegg, a former UK Deputy Prime Minister, who is on a week-long visit to the country stressed the Indian Government is looking to carve out specific technology regulations, and not take off-the-shelf versions from elsewhere.

According to him, there is increasing awareness that India plays a unique role in the digital ecosystem and that the country is on its way to becoming a “digital superpower”.

there is increasing awareness that India plays a unique role in the digital ecosystem and that the country is on its way to becoming a “digital superpower”.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Regarding India’s role in regulating the Internet India’s take on digital issues is refreshingly straightforward.

Given how much new regulation is being introduced in India and the pivotal role it plays in the global digital ecosystem, I think it occupies an unusually interesting position at an unusually interesting time.

India’s new regulations

As far as I can make out, the Indian government is seeking to carve out regulations for India and not just taking off-the-shelf versions from Europe, the UK, Canada or the US.

I do think there is a real awareness that India plays a unique role in the digital ecosystem.

India’s ambition in pursuing this ‘techade’ is a totally legitimate one.

It is really on route to becoming a digital superpower. It already is, in many respects.

On the global tech meltdown

The common theme, which almost sounds naive in hindsight, is that there was an assumption that the atypical trends during the pandemic would become typical. We hired huge numbers of people.

Unfortunately, if you hire like this because you think a trend is going to continue, and it does not, you have to cut your cloth differently, which is why we, unfortunately, had to announce these layoffs.

Twitter under Elon Musk

Well, it’s certainly quite a spectacle! Amid the media attention on Twitter, I was reminded of how very different it is from Facebook.

Twitter is an elite app. It is actually very small – smaller than Snap in terms of users.

But it is used very, very heavily by politicians and journalists, by the cultural elites.

Facebook is a genuine mass-market app.

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