While American lawmakers in Washington DC were preparing for a fresh round of tongue-lashings for the social media giants on Thursday, their counterparts in New Delhi were not wasting any time. The Indian government announced a sweeping array of rules reining-in social media. Specifically, social media platforms are required to become more responsible and more accountable for the content they carry. There is now a list of stuff deemed offensive. In case you are unsure of whether your last hilarious post on that family WhatsApp group met the criteria, you ought to look it up the list is quite long. And be forewarned that even if your post is not outright fake news, pornography or celebrates Greta Thunberg, you may be kicked off the platform if your post threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or Sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order, or causes incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence or prevents investigation of any offence or is insulting any foreign States. In other words, the government is giving itself plenty of room to cut Big Tech down to size. The timing of the announcement is, indeed, intriguing. You will recall, of course, the Indian government's recent scuffle with Twitter. The government had ordered some accounts and tweets in support of the farmer protests to be blocked. Twitter initially refused, saying that it wouldn't comply with orders inconsistent with Indian law and eventually relented. The beauty of the new regulations is that, in principle, it could make such a blocking order a legal demand a far more graceful way of controlling pesky tweets. To be fair, Big Tech needs reining in for many reasons and India is by no means alone in taking a big swing at Big Tech. The recent showdown with Twitter may have only accelerated getting to that inevitable reckoning. India joins other governments around the world that have found a common adversary Companies with hundreds of millions and even billions in their thrall and the power to control the three most critical levers of modern times, data, attention and the popular narrative.