12 february 2018 http://www.openthemagazine.com 19
ANGLE Id EAsSocIal coercIon
A
s a GEnEral principle, people
should be allowed to be greedy, and
since greed is always accompanied by
risk, be responsible for the consequences
of their greed, both profits and losses.
some part of this right we turn over to
the state, which, in theory at least, acts
on behalf of our welfare. the govern-
ment is, for instance, okay with people
participating in small neighbourhood
Ponzi schemes but a big scam is closed
down because millions are involved and
the majority could lose money. the state
is, again in theory, a construct which
exists in the interest of its people. When
corporations, which exist for its share-
holders, try to take on the same role, the
implications are disturbing. this is why
Facebook banning all ads of crypto-
currencies like Bitcoin, including even
legitimate businesses, should be debated.
It is true Bitcoin is almost certainly a
bubble and when it bursts, a lot of people
are going to be wounded. only the very
smart or very greedy or very dumb are
going to put money in something whose
price has shot up ten times. Even govern-
ments don’t like it too much either. “the
Government does not consider crypto-
currencies legal tender or coin and will
take all measures to eliminate use of
these crypto-assets in financing illegiti-
mate activities or as part of the payment
system,” Finance minister arun Jaitley
said in his union Budget speech.
the difference is that the Govern-
ment’s locus standi on deciding what
is right and wrong comes from being
elected. Good decisions do not always em-
anate from there and counter checks are
in-built, like a judicial appeal. Facebook’ s
decision to keep a legitimate business off
its platform is based entirely on a whim.
normally, commercial and legal
interests would prevent it from
being dictatorial. also, as things stand
today, there are alternatives. twitter cEo
Jack Dorsey took the opposite position
after Facebook’s announcement by
saying that his social network would
promote cryptocurrencies.
But consider the shape the world
is taking. corporations like Facebook,
Google and amazon have so much ac-
cess to data that they are on their way to
becoming global monopolies. the
sheer amount of information they are
capturing makes it hard for competitors
to dislodge them. as Evgeny morozov,
author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side
of Internet Freedom, argued recently in
The Guardian, these tech monoliths
are governed by the twin impetuses of
compassion and indifference; the former
would govern as long as they need to
harvest all our data and, when that is
done, indifference would take over.
companies like Facebook and
Google have an overarching presence in
our lives, and if there are no alternatives,
the consumer will effectively become a
hostage. Banning cryptocurrency ads is
a moral decision by Facebook and that
makes it even more dangerous. It might
have got it right this time, but who is to
say what any future decision will look
like? or who the decision maker and his
motives will be? nAPPEARANcEs
It is an established practice that an
ungainly figure will be rounded
up to its closest aesthetic sibling.
so a ‘rs 63,000’ will most likely be
referred to as ‘over rs 60,000’, or
maybe even ‘around rs 65,000’. But
referring to it as ‘around rs 70,000’
would be stretching it. But politics is
little about aesthetics and all about
appearances. and so the Burberry
jacket rahul Gandhi reportedly
wore in shillong was found by the
twitter account of BJP’s meghalaya
unit to be worth $995 (around rs
63,500). But by the time BJP’s ram
madhav tweeted, this figure had
turned to rs 70,000. Political leaders
are perhaps among the richest
professionals, but the appearance
of frugality is paramount here. so
how did the congress defend itself?
Gandhi claimed it was a gift. and
his party spokesperson renuka
chowdhury suggested it was a
knockoff worth rs 700. n‘i like to make
people feel happy
and superior in their
reaction towards my
appearance’
kurt cobainWORd’s WORThFacebook’s ban on cryptocurrency
advertisements is problematic
By mADHAvAnkuTTy pillAi