Politico | China, EU seize control of the world’s cyber agenda
The US guided global internet policy for decades. Now, the EU and China are taking the lead
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Eric Geller on politico.com July 22, 2018.
The United States is losing ground as the internet’s standard-bearer in the face of aggressive European privacy standards and China’s draconian vision for a tightly controlled Web.
The weakening American position comes as the European Union, filling a gap left by years of lax US regulations, imposes data privacy requirements that companies like Facebook and Google must follow. At the same time, China is dictating companies’ security practices with mandates that experts say will undermine global cybersecurity – without any significant pushback from the United States.
Experts in cyber policy say the trends could slow the internet’s growth, stunt innovation and erect new market barriers for American businesses. And while these trends began before Donald Trump became president, his administration has yet to devise a clear plan to rebut either of these agendas.
“The US cannot afford to be on the sidelines,” said Chris Painter, America’s top cyber diplomat from 2011 to 2017, who is now with the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace. “Other countries are doing things legislatively that affect the US … and the US is on the back foot.”
One result of this shift is the erosion of the freewheeling US vision of the internet that had reigned for decades. “The US model looks both paralysed and somewhat feckless, while the Europeans and the Chinese are making progress and, in many cases, damaging the openness of the internet,” said Adam Segal, director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ cyber policy programme. “And we don’t particularly have a coherent response to it.”