Recent US submissions on technology trade are heavy on rhetoric but light on balanced argument, using emotive language to frame legitimate national policies as protectionist barriers. These proposals conveniently ignore valid concerns around citizens’ privacy, intellectual property rights, and national security.
The narrative paints regulations that protect personal data as ‘discriminatory’ and payments for the use of media content as ‘extortionate’. This is akin to a thief demanding the right to sell what they have stolen, simply because they live in a different neighbourhood. It wrongly assumes nations should surrender their organisations’ intellectual property and their citizens’ privacy for the benefit of US vendors.
This aggressive stance, coupled with geopolitical instability, is fostering a desire for data and technology sovereignty. As organisations grow wary of ‘America First’ policies, we risk a ‘Balkanisation’ of data and tech infrastructure, a fracturing of the global digital ecosystem that will ultimately benefit no one. The US has more to lose than gain by pursuing this path.
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