Blocking free flow of data a burden on growth, innovation: Meta's Kaplan

Kaplan talks about free flow of data to age-appropriate content and more

Mandating data localisation does not make sense for countries which want their companies to compete at an international level, the chief global affairs officer at Meta Joel Kaplan told Aashish Aryan in New Delhi. Edited excerpts from a conversation that ranged from free flow of data to age-appropriate content and more:

 

What do you think of the draft rules of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act?

 

We have felt all along that the government has been very open, transparent and consultative. The rulemaking reflects the government’s general approach of trying to strike a balance between protecting the users’ safety and privacy but doing so in a way that continues to promote innovation. There are a few remaining areas where we think the rules could benefit from some additional clarity.

 

What are those areas?

 

The rules can benefit from some additional clarity on tracking and monitoring of users under 18 years  and what constitutes targeted advertisements. This is needed so that we can continue to offer age- appropriate safe content and experiences. There should be some more clarity around consent so that services like ours can continue to be offered for free.

 

The industry has flagged concerns on the rules around cross-border flow of data and said that these could lead to business disruptions. And, telecom companies in India have supported data localisation. Your thoughts?

 

I do not think mandatory data localisation makes sense for a country with companies that want to compete internationally. The whole digital or internet ecosystem is based on the free flow of data across borders and it will create considerable harm to Indian businesses if the data is not able to flow across borders….. It would be a pretty significant burden on economic growth and innovation in India. We are hopeful that it is not the direction that the government is going to go.

 

Coming back to the subject of age-related content, countries across the world have become more conservative as far as the use of social media by teenagers and users below the age of 18 is concerned. Some have completely banned it. Why do you think that is happening?

 

Only one government has taken that approach. I think that it will ill-serve the teens in that country if they continue down that path. The right approach is empowering the parents to control the experience that their teens are having online. Parents are best positioned to understand what they want for their teens and what digital experiences they think they are ready for.

 

The government has left it to the platforms to ensure parental consent through the tools and services they deem right. Does Meta have the architecture in place to do that effectively?

 

We think that the right place to place parental consent mechanisms is at the app store level because it is the most efficient and privacy-protective for everyone. I am confident that we will be able to comply with the requirements of the law. It is a challenge when you have the issues around shared devices or non-tech savvy parents but the flexibility for companies within the law to figure out how best to obtain consent will enable us to comply. 

Companies and countries are competing to prove their dominance in the development of AI tools and services, foundation models. Has it become an arms race?

 

There is going to be a fierce competition for dominance in AI. We think that it is critically important that open source models continue to be welcomed under the regulatory regimes that have shared values around openness and transparency. 

There is going to be an open source global standard for AI that emerges. When it does, it is in our shared interest for that standard to be based on democratic values.  

Open source AI is an incredible opportunity for India. We are going to invest $60-$65 billion on AI in 2025 to build these advanced AI models and make them available freely to developers all over the world markets. India’s robust and vibrant developer ecosystem provides an extraordinary opportunity to take advantage of the investment.

 

What should be India’s approach on regulating AI?

 

America innovates, the EU (European Union) regulates and India innovates for scale. The DPI (digital public infrastructure) innovations in India have shown us that. 

The Indian government approach of balancing consumer rights and ensuring innovation is the model approach and will allow AI adoption at scale. On the other hand, the EU’s record on innovation for more than the last decade has been negative. Their regulatory efforts of the last few decades have just not resulted in the kind of growth it needs to keep pace with the US, China or of late India.

 

How do you see the India-US relations with President Donald Trump back in office?

 

I think both countries have shared and common democratic values and as long as they continue to pursue that and there’s a regulatory environment that encourages innovation, we should expect a very productive and constructive relationship over the next four years.