In some ways, I abandoned my culture when I was young because I was trying so hard to fit in. My parents were, and still is very cultural. Growing up, there was always Indian music playing, our house was full of Bengali literature, my Dad’s hero was poet Rabindranath Tagore, and he also loved the films of Satyajit Ray. I was surrounded by culture and yet I couldn’t fully embrace it at the time.
I am an immigrant from Guilin, China. In 2010, I moved to the U.S. for grad school. After graduating from Kansas State University (Go Cats!) I moved to Oregon and have been living in Portland for the last 9 years.
Technology giants, or Big Tech as they are called, have become intertwined extensively with our everyday lives. Early in 2021, Facebook decided to take a step ahead in monetising Whatsapp. This was to be enabled by the changes in the terms outlined in its updated privacy policy. One fine day, users woke up to the notification for the proposed changes in its Privacy Policy. This paved the way to an international conversation about privacy, and also triggered widespread adoption of alternatives to Whatsapp such as Signal and Telegram.
This is a discussion about an issue that straddles two hugely different areas — trademark and domain names. And, one that is even further complicated by a controversial contention between the private sector and sovereign states over a 7 year-long battle for an Internet domain name.