MediaNama is excited to announce MarketsNama 2023, the first edition of our annual conference focusing on key themes related to regulation of digital markets, including online marketplaces, aggregators, platforms and other intermediaries, like social media platforms, e-commerce marketplaces, app stores, cloud services, and more.
In this conference, we aim to better understand policy thinking and regulatory activity – its principles, motivation, effects – around addressing issues related to the regulation of these entities, both from a speech and business perspective. This discussion is particularly relevant right now because of the impending consultations related to the Digital India Act, and the rework of India’s IT Act.
Date: Friday, May 19, 2023
Time: 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM
Venue: Gulmohar, India Habitat Centre, Delhi
Save the date, block your calendar, and sign up for the physical discussion. The option to attend virtually is available to MediaNama subscribers. You may subscribe to MediaNama.
Why is this discussion important?
The Internet is a marketplace of ideas, experiences, content and commerce. The marketplace function is enabled by platforms, which allow users to share content, sellers and buyers to engage in an exchange of goods, services and money. These platforms essentially enable discovery of people, products and services via an aggregation function.
The Government of India has been working to change how it regulates marketplaces, aggregators and intermediaries. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s Minister of State for Information Technology, has highlighted the need for “trust and accountability” from platforms, and has asked an important and provocative question: Do we really need safe harbor?
The Digital India Act plans to address gaps that the Government of India considers were left unaddressed by the Information Technology Act (Amendment) 2008, and create mechanisms for regulating digital services and marketplaces, and also enable actions that the government has already taken in notifying multiple iterations of the Information Technology Rules (2020, 2021 and 2022). With the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act having been passed and notified in the European Union, the template for updating marketplace/intermediary regulations is also in place. How things will change is yet to be determined.
There are multiple issues for consideration when it comes to digital marketplaces and services:
- How will safe harbor protections change with the Digital India Act?
- Role of sectoral regulation and regulatory overlap
- Regulating marketplaces (e-commerce and app stores) for dominance and platform liability
- Regulation of cloud services and ISPs
- Algorithmic accountability across digital platforms and services
- Regulation of speech and content online
- Addressing cybercrime and cybersecurity concerns
- Verification of users and market participants
While increasing regulations on marketplaces and intermediaries may bring in a semblance of greater accountability, the impact on innovation, the downstream impact on merchants and smaller businesses also needs to be considered. The effectiveness of the measures being considered globally also needs to be explored.
We will publish a detailed agenda for the conference day including speaker names, shortly. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to apply to attend this invite-only discussion. Please feel free to suggest points of discussion and questions you think ought to be raised, in the application form.
Why you should attend
Here are 5 reasons why, if you’re in technology/policy, you must consider attending MediaNama discussions, especially the physical, in-person formats:
- Share your point of view and get instant feedback: At MediaNama discussions you get to share your point of view, instead of being talked to by a panel: over 60% of a MediaNama discussion is interactive and focused on debating issues with the participants in the roomful of an audience curated for relevance.
- Meet others working on the same subject: we have dedicated networking time at MediaNama discussions, where you can meet and engage with others working on the same subject, and get a sense of what’s happening behind the scenes.
- Hear a point you hadn’t considered: We curate our participants for a diversity of perspectives, with people working on the same issue, but coming from a different background: hear not just from policy wonks, but also technologists, founders, people working with lawmakers, among others. There’s always another way of looking at something.
- Outcome focused: At the end of each session, one of the key questions we consider is a wish list: what should change, why and how?
- Breadth and depth of understanding: At MediaNama we are focused on providing our readers and attendees with both the depth and breadth of understanding of technology policy. We work hard to determine the probing questions that lend themselves to a deeper understanding of issues, discuss principles, and bring out perspectives that you might not have considered. You can ask questions too. Sometimes the questions are more important than an answer.
- Registration does not guarantee attendance. In case you fit our mandate for the intended audience, we’ll send you a confirmation before May 19, 2023, for the discussion.
- MediaNama’s subscribers, however, get guaranteed access to all our events, with an option to attend virtually. You can subscribe to MediaNama to support our work.
- Your contact information will never be shared with anyone outside of MediaNama.
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