Tech companies often present themselves as protectors of ethics. They promise to set strict boundaries to shield users from misuse, harm, or exploitation. However, these boundaries tend to vanish when revenue declines. The reality is that tech morality is not based on ethics; it is tied to profit cycles, stock pressure, and the need for constant growth.
We see this pattern across AI firms, social media platforms, and even hardware companies. A rule that was once “non-negotiable” suddenly shifts to being called “innovative,” “user-driven,” or “premium.” This change is never about philosophy; it is about finances.
For the global Indian and Brown community, one of the world’s largest creators and consumers of technology, this is significant. Whether in Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, Singapore, Dubai, or London, our diaspora is connected to the tech industry. So when tech morality changes, it impacts us both inside and outside these companies.
How Tech Morality Becomes a Business Strategy
Business firms are fond of preaching about their values, particularly when those values start to conflict with their market share. In these times of business slowdown, new prospects are created out of what used to be considered unethical characteristics.
Consider the pace at which AI companions are being developed and adult chat tools. Over the years, businesses cautioned consumers of the dangers of personal or emotional interaction with AI. But as soon as the revenue pressure rose, a lot of people changed their position. The models that previously did not engage in such behavior are now openly promoting it as a service.
The ideal example is the way firms such as OpenAI, Character.ai, and others repented their stand. They placed effective guardrails first thing. Subsequently, with increased competition, the same guardrails were loosened not out of increased safety, but of increased profitability.
This is not ethics evolving; instead, tech morality made to suit the business chart.
Tech Morality Always Follows the Money
We have experienced this in misinformation policies as well. Initially, social networks such as Facebook and YouTube adopted aggressive positions on the content that harmed. But as strict moderation was damaging engagement, the rules were quietly made flexible once again.
This is the reason why tech morality is so often a mirage, an illusion created to create trust and to defend change when profits go down.
To the international Indian diaspora, this is actually significant:
- It influences our relationship in the diaspora online.
- It defines political communication in continents.
- It determines the way the Indian culture, language, and identity are perceived in the world arena.
- It affects Indian founders who are creating companies with ever-changing policies.
- We are not only constructing but also victims of the changing ethical norms that are not well spelt out.
Revenue Cycles Decide What Suddenly Becomes “Allowed”
Whenever a company faces a slow quarter, a familiar pattern emerges:
Reject, decline, reevaluate, monetize, rebrand.
When ad revenue falls, suddenly “new premium experiences” appear. When user engagement drops, previously banned interactions turn into “user-driven features.” Even companies like Apple, which heavily market privacy, change their standards when they move into new markets.
The same thinking applies to AI companies. What is considered “unsafe” today becomes “exploratory” tomorrow and “a paid feature” the next day. This shifting definition of tech morality shows that ethics are not internal values; they are external tools for managing public perception.
Why the Global Indian Community Must Care
This question applies particularly to Indians and the larger Brown diaspora. We are fully integrated into international technology ecosystems:
- We have one of the largest engineering workforces and product management teams in the world.
- We are big investors, initiators, and pioneers.
- Our families rely on online platforms to connect with each other across borders.
- The algorithmic and policy decisions form our cultural representation.
When a company makes changes overnight, it influences:
- Indian activist safety overseas.
- The exposure of Indian creators.
- Diaspora news accuracy.
- The Indian employee ethics of the professionals who were under pressure to implement changing policies.
With an unstable tech morality, our digital identity will be unstable too.
Tech Morality Is Advertising, Not Ethics
That is the ugly reality: tech morality is not about what is right or wrong but about narration. It is a marketing gadget that is kept in the convenient times and thrown away in the inconvenient ones.
These contradictions are usually seen by global Indian professionals working within these companies. This has been witnessed through many redacted policy memos overnight or features passing through approval after having been previously ethically objected to. And as users, we are then informed that the shift is to our good. Nevertheless, the timing is always a telltale of the actual motive, growth targets, investor demands, or competitive pressure.
That is why people must learn about tech morality as one of the main aspects of the contemporary digital environment.
Can Accountability Exist in a World of Shifting Ethics?
When businesses pursue money rather than values, then it is upon the system participants to be accountable. Regulators and journalists have a contribution to make, but they are only a few compared to the global Indian community due to their huge presence. We must push for transparent policies and regular ethical standards. Talking straightforwardly about the reasons rules change. Obvious limits that do not change depending on the time of profits. Otherwise, platforms will keep on influencing our online experiences at the expense of righteousness, rather than right.
Conclusion
Values are always modified by the companies when they need revenue. That is how tech morality is. However, as a global Indian community that has been incorporated into the web of world technology to a point where they are felt, it is empowering to identify this trend.
The distinction between real ethics and revenue-driven ethics helps us to uphold our culture, our online identities, and our professional aspects. In case the morality of technology remains technologically cyclic, it will not just change platforms, but it will transform the way Indians all over the world communicate, express themselves, and remain in touch.
Let us know your thoughts. If you have burning thoughts or opinions to express, please feel free to reach out to us at larra@globalindiannetwork.com.
