News commentary

How Trump’s Data Regulation Crackdown Undermines Digital Sovereignty

Tech Policy Press · James Görgen · last updated

The Trump administration last month reportedly issued a formal directive to its diplomats worldwide to actively combat any data sovereignty and localization initiatives adopted by other countries.

The document — an internal State Department cable dated February 18 and signed by Secretary Marco Rubio — classifies such measures as direct threats to artificial intelligence services, cloud computing and global data flows.

Read in isolation, it appears to be little more than a routine diplomatic note, albeit a serious one. Read alongside the Trump administration’s July trade investigation against Brazil, as well as similar developments at the G20 and the World Trade Organization (WTO), the directive reveals a coordinated, wide-ranging strategy to prevent sovereign nations from regulating how American platforms treat data and content created by their citizens online.

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