The product challenges for AI that records us (and for us) reasoned.live/p/the-product-…

Had completely forgotten: I started reporting on the tech industry in India 20 years ago... on August 1st. Was finding it difficult to get a job and asked friends for help because I only wanted to work in the Internet industry, and there weren't many opportunities around and I didn't know how to get them. I loved the Internet then, almost as much as I do now. Had interviewed with network18, based on @/codelust 's recommendation, and had been waiting for a month for them to respond. @mrajshekhar suggested I apply for a gig with his friend @rafat who used to run contentsutra.com . Rafat said let's try this out for 15 days. 10 days later, I wanted to do this, and he wanted me to continue. Network18 came back a month later and I said no, because I was having fun. 6 months later, I was running contentsutra, having the time of my live, reporting on a domain and an Industry I love, with the freedom to say whatever I want to say, and meeting fun people, going for barcamps and organising mobile mondays with @pacificleo. 20 years later, still staying true to that: saying what I want to say, doing what I want to do, and what I think is right for the Internet and the Internet in India. The net neutrality campaign happened because it was the right thing to do. The pushback against aadhaar was the same. The pushback against the IT Rules is based on the same principles. My love for the Internet is at slight loggerheads with my love for AI, but that conflict doesn't stop me from spending 10-14 hours a day (including today) coding and building. Was at a Qwen meetup and an 18 year old reminded me I started working before he was born. I loved it. I was bored out of my skin (and really unwell with surgeries etc) last year, and policy felt repetitive, stupid and boring, and I turned to AI and reasoned.live to push me to do something new. 8 months later, I'm doing hackathons, building products, building internal tooling, experimenting with hardware, and having more fun that I've had in the last 5 years. Am a kid in a candy store with AI. All this while, I'm thinking about how AI will change the Internet, and with it, the world. Thinking, writing, debating, fighting, tinkering, building. 20 years...most days I still love doing this.

This order is illegal and unlawful and there’s no law as far as I know that allows the Government of India to do this. They’re acting as a law unto themselves. Let me explain: 1. Bitchat itself has not violated any law. It’s a piece of software that people use to communicate without the Internet. If a threat was created using Microsoft Word OFFLINE, would you hold Microsoft responsible for it. If that is the principled rationale here, then every software in the world is susceptible to the vagaries of actions from the Indian government. 2. Such an act of disproportionate blocking needs to be backed up with proof: merely being able to communicate without surveillance, is not a violation of any law. Neither the platform nor the government of India can track what is being done with it. On what basis is this order being issued? 4. Decentralised technologies are critical to the functioning of the web: they allow users to take control over their own Internet usage, without dependence on a single platform. Maybe that’s exactly it: the Indian government controls our speech and our communications THROUGH concentrated large platforms like x, Instagram, Facebook, and the idea of decentralisation, where they can’t order a single player to take something down, seems unmanageable to them. 4. An act of blocking has to be proportionate: there is legitimate speech potentially on the platform itself. We don’t know what is the actual speech which it thinks (doesn’t know) is illegal. By taking down these platforms you censor/prevent people from having the opportunity to communicate privately, and legitimately. 5. Directing Github to remove this app is also deeply problematic: not only is Bitchat not illegal, a platform that allows you to download an app or code for your own personal usage, for legal purposes, is also not illegal. Github is at risk because it’s a centralised platform btw. 6. No law in India mandates an app to have mandatory user registration, phone number verification or centralised logging of communications. There is no ban on anonymous coordination. Surveillance isn’t mandatory. In face, many existing communications apps do not do this. THIS as a basis for issuing a blocking order is itself illegal - no law supports this action. 7. The order says that the platform is capable of being used for unlawful activities: I’m afraid that’s no reason for blocking something. A messaging app can be used for illegal activities, it can be used for legal activities. A knife can be used to till or cut fruit. You don’t ban knifes. Again, this order is illegal and unlawful and there’s no law as far as I know that allows the government of India to do this. They’re acting as a law unto themselves.

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