Overview of the Crises The Global Digital Information Regulatory Perspective Throughout the 116th and 117th Congresses, the United States was not alone in dealing with the global shocks of the pandemic, polarization, and the outsized role large U.S. technology companies had on governance, democratic institutions, the economy, and information systems. During that period, as the pandemic swept across the globe, many other countries pursued regulations and established new governance institutions to help address societal harms created by the rapid spread of false information and to address other issues with emerging technologies. Regulating technology and information presents unique challenges for every country, often with a trade-off between encouraging innovation and protecting the public. European privacy regulations are ambitious and they have effective privacy protecting institutions, but apart from Germany’s SAP Software Solutions, European countries have failed to incubate any major competitors to U.S. technology companies or their mostly self-made founders. It is also not fully clear if the current regulatory frameworks or institutions in European countries are any less threatened by trends in democratic decline.1 China, which has successfully developed large technology competitors, has recently taken aggressive regulatory steps to reign in its emerging technology companies and entrepreneurs including regulating algorithms with the stated intent of ensuring they do not exacerbate harms to society. They have also established a department committed to ensuring data privacy and innovation and have aggressively attempted to set global standards following the United States’ implementation of the extraterritorial Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (CLOUD Act) of 2017, which allowed U.S. law enforcement to demand access to data wherever it resides. China’s regulatory institutions are forward leaning in their scope and design, but given China’s record on surveillance and 1
See the EIU Democracy Index for 2021. https://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/democracy-index-2021/?utm_ source=economist&utm_medium=daily_chart&utm_campaign=democracy-index-2021
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs | Harvard Kennedy School
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