Professors in Print: "Digital Empires" by Anu Bradford

Summary

Anu Bradford, a professor at Columbia Law School, discusses her book 'Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology,' which outlines the struggle to regulate the digital economy. She identifies three models: the American market-driven, Chinese state-driven, and European rights-driven approaches. Each model seeks to expand its influence globally, with the U.S. exporting tech company power, China exporting digital infrastructure, and Europe exporting regulatory power. Bradford foresees a bipolar digital world emerging, with authoritarian-leaning countries aligning with China and democracies moving towards the European model, posing a challenge to the U.S. to consolidate a democratic front against digital authoritarianism.

Takeaways

• 📚 Anu Bradford is a professor at Columbia Law School, focusing on EU law, digital regulation, international trade, and antitrust.
• 📖 She authored 'Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology' to explore the choices and consequences in the digital economy's regulation.
• 🌐 There's a global consensus on the need for digital economy regulation, but no agreement on its form.
• 🏛️ Bradford identifies three models of digital economy regulation: the American market-driven, Chinese state-driven, and European rights-driven models.
• 🌎 The American model emphasizes free Internet and speech, innovation incentives, while the Chinese model focuses on state power and technological dominance, including surveillance and censorship.
• 🛡️ The European model prioritizes individual rights, democratic structures, and fair distribution of digital economy benefits.
• 🌐 These 'digital empires' are not confined within their borders but are expanding their influence through the export of their regulatory models.
• 🇺🇸 The U.S. tech companies, like Facebook, provide global services but are also associated with significant global harms.
• 🇨🇳 China is exporting digital infrastructure, building networks and surveillance technologies, spreading its norms and standards.
• 🇪🇺 Europe, lacking in technology development, leads in regulatory development, influencing global tech through the 'Brussels effect'.
• 🤔 The digital economy is either governed by authoritarians or tech companies, challenging liberal democracy.
• 🔄 Bradford foresees a bipolar digital world, with authoritarian-leaning countries aligning with China and democracies moving towards the European model.

Q & A

What is the main focus of Anu Bradford's book 'Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology'?

The book 'Digital Empires' focuses on the choices that governments, tech companies, and digital citizens face regarding the direction of the digital economy, and the forces and consequences of making those choices.

What are the three predominant ways to regulate the digital economy as discussed in 'Digital Empires'?

The three predominant ways to regulate the digital economy are the American market-driven model, the Chinese state-driven model, and the European rights-driven model.

How does the American market-driven model approach digital economy regulation?

The American model focuses on a free Internet, free speech, and incentives to innovate.

What are the key aspects of the Chinese state-driven model according to Anu Bradford?

The Chinese model focuses on preserving state power, making China a technological superpower, and leveraging technology for surveillance and censorship to entrench the power of the Chinese Communist Party.

What does the European rights-driven model emphasize in terms of digital economy regulation?

The European model emphasizes preserving individual fundamental rights, democratic structures, and a fair distribution of benefits from the digital economy.

Why are the regulatory models referred to as 'digital empires' in the book?

The term 'digital empires' is used because these models are not confined to their jurisdictions; they export their regulatory models abroad, expanding their spheres of influence.

How does the U.S. exert its influence in the digital economy?

The U.S. exerts its influence by exporting the private power of its tech companies, which provide services and products globally.

What is China's approach to exporting its digital economy model?

China exports its digital infrastructure, building a 'digital Silk Road' across various continents, exporting Chinese norms and technology standards.

How does the European Union influence the global digital economy?

The EU influences the global digital economy by developing regulations that often become global standards due to the 'Brussels effect,' where global tech companies follow European rules in their global operations.

What challenges does Anu Bradford highlight in regulating tech companies?

Regulating tech companies is challenging due to their size, influence, and the political will required for effective regulation, which varies across jurisdictions.

What is the potential future of the digital economy according to Anu Bradford?

Bradford suggests a future where the digital economy is either governed by authoritarians or tech companies, leading to a bipolar digital world with techno-democracies and techno-autocracies.

Outlines

00:00

🌐 Digital Empires: The Global Regulatory Landscape

Anu Bradford, a professor at Columbia Law School, discusses her book 'Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology.' The book explores the challenges and choices faced by governments, tech companies, and digital citizens in shaping the digital economy. Bradford identifies three main regulatory models: the American market-driven model emphasizing free Internet and innovation, the Chinese state-driven model focusing on state power and technological advancement, and the European rights-driven model prioritizing individual rights and a fair distribution of digital economy benefits. She explains how these models, or 'digital empires,' are not limited to their jurisdictions but are expanding their influence globally, with the U.S. exporting tech company power, China exporting digital infrastructure, and Europe exporting regulatory power. The 'Brussels effect' is highlighted, where European regulations often become global standards due to tech companies adopting them worldwide.

05:00

🔍 The Future of Digital Empires and Technopolar World

Bradford contemplates the future of digital regulation, expressing concern over the decline of the American digital empire and the backlash against the power of U.S. tech companies. She discusses the potential for a bipolar digital world, with authoritarian-leaning countries aligning with a variant of the Chinese model and democratic countries moving towards the European rights-driven model. This division could lead to a conflict between techno-democracies and techno-autocracies. The challenge for the U.S. is to decide whether to consolidate a united democratic front with the EU to challenge Chinese digital authoritarianism or risk letting China dominate. The conclusion suggests that the digital economy is currently governed either by authoritarian regimes or by tech companies themselves, which are the true digital empires.

Keywords

💡Digital Empires

The term 'Digital Empires' refers to the dominant regulatory models of the digital economy, which are not confined to their jurisdictions but are expanding globally. In the context of the video, these empires are represented by the American market-driven, Chinese state-driven, and European rights-driven models. The concept is central to understanding the global battle to regulate technology and how different nations are influencing the digital landscape through their approaches to digital governance.

💡EU Law

EU Law, or European Union Law, is the body of laws that govern the member states of the European Union. In the video, the speaker's expertise in EU law is relevant as it informs her analysis of the European rights-driven model of digital regulation. This model is characterized by an emphasis on individual rights and democratic structures, which is a key aspect of the European approach to shaping the digital economy.

💡Digital Regulation

Digital Regulation pertains to the rules and policies that govern digital technologies and the internet. The video discusses the necessity of digital regulation and the different approaches taken by various models. It is a central theme as it directly impacts the control and exploitation of technology and determines whether technology serves or controls humanity.

💡Market-driven Model

The 'Market-driven Model' is an approach to digital economy regulation that emphasizes free internet, free speech, and incentives for innovation. This model is exemplified by the United States, where tech companies like Facebook operate with significant autonomy. The video suggests that this model has led to both benefits, such as widespread consumer adoption, and harms, such as the spread of disinformation.

💡State-driven Model

The 'State-driven Model' is characterized by the state's active role in shaping the digital economy to serve its interests, including surveillance and censorship. China is presented as the primary example, where the state uses technology to maintain power and promote its norms and standards globally through initiatives like the digital Silk Road.

💡Rights-driven Model

The 'Rights-driven Model' focuses on protecting individual rights and democratic structures within the digital economy. Europe is highlighted as adopting this approach, which involves creating regulations that tech companies often adopt globally due to the 'Brussels effect.' This model aims for a fair distribution of benefits from the digital economy and is seen as a counterbalance to the other models.

💡Brussels Effect

The 'Brussels Effect' refers to the phenomenon where European regulations become de facto global standards because tech companies choose to apply them worldwide to avoid fragmentation of their operations. This term is crucial in understanding how European regulations can have a global impact, despite not being a tech powerhouse in the traditional sense.

💡Technopolar

The term 'Technopolar' is used to describe a world order influenced by technology, where tech companies or authoritarian states have significant control. The video suggests that the digital economy is currently governed by either tech companies in a market-driven model or authoritarian states in a state-driven model, which poses challenges to liberal democracies.

💡Democratic Constraints

Democratic Constraints refer to the limitations faced by democratic governments in regulating tech companies due to legal and political processes. The video contrasts this with the situation in China, where there are fewer such constraints, allowing for more direct state control over the digital economy.

💡Digital Silk Road

The 'Digital Silk Road' is a term used to describe China's efforts to build digital infrastructure across various regions, exporting its technological standards and norms. This initiative is part of China's state-driven model and is seen as a means of expanding its influence and soft power globally.

💡Bipolar Digital World

A 'Bipolar Digital World' is a concept presented in the video that suggests a division between countries leaning towards authoritarian models of digital governance and those adopting more democratic, rights-driven approaches. This division is seen as an emerging battle between techno-democracies and techno-autocracies, with significant implications for the future of global technology regulation.

Highlights

Anu Bradford is a professor at Columbia Law School specializing in EU law, digital regulation, and international trade and antitrust.

She has been working on a book titled 'Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology.'

The book aims to reveal the choices governments, tech companies, and digital citizens face regarding the digital economy's direction.

Bradford seeks to explain the forces shaping digital economy choices and the stakes involved in making them.

There's a growing global consensus that the digital economy needs regulation, but no agreement on what it should look like.

The book identifies three predominant models for regulating the digital economy: American market-driven, Chinese state-driven, and European rights-driven.

The American model emphasizes free Internet, free speech, and innovation incentives.

The Chinese model focuses on state power, technological superpower status, and technology use for surveillance and censorship.

The European model prioritizes individual rights, democratic structures, and fair distribution of digital economy benefits.

Each 'digital empire' is not confined to its jurisdiction but is engaged in exporting its regulatory model abroad.

The U.S. exports private tech company power, China exports digital infrastructure, and Europe exports regulatory power.

American tech companies provide services and products globally but are also associated with global harms.

China is building a digital Silk Road, exporting telecommunications and surveillance technologies, and Chinese norms.

Europeans are developing regulations that often become global standards due to the 'Brussels effect'.

There's an argument that tech companies, seen as new governors, are difficult to regulate effectively.

The digital economy is either governed by authoritarians or tech companies, which is unsettling for liberal democracy.

Bradford concludes that the American digital empire is declining due to backlash against the power of U.S. tech companies.

She doubts a global consensus on a single digital empire model will emerge.

A bipolar digital world is emerging, with authoritarian-leaning countries behind a variant of the Chinese model and many democracies shifting towards the European model.

The U.S. faces a choice between consolidating a united democratic front with the EU or letting China win in digital authoritarianism.

Transcripts

My name is Anu Bradford. I'm a professor at  Columbia Law School specializing in EU law,  

digital regulation, and international trade and  antitrust. For the past two years, I have been  

working on a book called "Digital Empires:  The Global Battle to Regulate Technology."

I wrote "Digital Empires" to lay bare the  choices that we are facing as governments,  

as tech companies, or as digital citizens  on the direction of the digital economy.  

I really wanted to explain with this book what  are the forces that are shaping those choices?  

What are the consequences or stakes involved  at making those choices? Because ultimately,  

they will determine whether we  as humans control technology or  

whether it's technology and its providers  that are controlling and exploiting us.

There is this growing sense around the  world that digital economy needs to be  

regulated. But there's no real consensus  on what that regulation ought to look like.

"Digital Empires" argues that there are three  predominant ways to regulate the digital economy.  

We have the American market-driven model, the  Chinese state-driven model, and the European  

rights-driven model. So the American model  is focused on free Internet, free speech,  

and incentives to innovate. The Chinese  state-driven model focuses on preserving the  

power of the state, making China the technological  superpower, but also leveraging technology towards  

surveillance and censorship to entrench the power  of the Chinese Communist Party. Then the European  

model preserves the fundamental rights of  individuals and the democratic structures  

of the society, and also focuses on more fair  distribution of benefits from the digital economy.

The reason I call these “digital empires”  is that none of these regulatory models  

are confined to the jurisdiction itself.  Instead, each digital empire is engaged  

in imperial expansion. They are exporting  their regulatory models abroad and then,  

in that process, expanding also  their relative spheres of influence.

The U.S. is exporting the private power of its  tech companies. China is exporting primarily  

the infrastructure, and the Europeans  are exporting their regulatory power.

So the American digital empire provides  the foundation for the digital economy as  

it exists today. Facebook, for instance,  has 3 billion users in 160 countries. So  

the American tech companies are providing  services and products that the consumers  

around the world love and have come to  depend on. But they are also responsible  

for many harms that can be associated with the  global, outsized influence of these companies.

China is exporting its digital infrastructures.  It is building a digital Silk Road across Africa,  

Latin America, Asia, parts of Europe. It  is building telecommunications networks,  

undersea cables, and surveillance  technologies, and in that process,  

exporting Chinese norms and technology standards.

Europeans, on the other hand, they are  not really developing the technologies;  

but they are mainly developing the  regulations that govern these technologies.  

So through a phenomenon that I  have called the Brussels effect,  

often the European regulations become global  regulations because the global tech companies  

decide to follow the European rule across  their global conduct and global production.

There is a compelling argument that the  tech companies actually cannot effectively  

be regulated. There are many leading  thinkers who refer to tech companies  

as the new governors or describe the world not  as bipolar or multipolar but technopolar. And  

it is true that regulating these  tech companies can be difficult.

Tech companies do remain beholden to regulators.  

But in the U.S., the problem is really  the dysfunction of the Congress that  

runs very deep. So the Congress would need  to muster the political will to regulate.

Europeans have been able to legislate, but they  are struggling to enforce their regulations.

China, on the other hand, hasn't faced  the democratic constraints of lawmaking  

or enforcement. And that leads to a rather  disturbing conclusion that the digital economy  

is either governed by authoritarians or the tech  companies. And those are the true digital empires.  

So that should be a very unsettling  conclusion for anybody who believes  

in liberal democracy as a  foundation of our society.

I don't think there will be a single dominant  digital empire. One conclusion that I arrived  

at is that the American digital empire is really  declining. There's been a tremendous backlash in  

this excessive power of American tech companies,  both in the U.S. but also across the world.  

So there have been many instances where,  for instance, American tech companies  

have provided a platform for hatred and  disinformation, election interference,  

you name it. And that has then prompted a reaction  in other governments and even in the U.S. that we  

do need to bring the governments back in. And the  self-regulation of these companies is not enough.

I doubt that we find the global consensus whereby  all countries would go behind one of these models.  

Instead, what we are seeing is an emergence  of a bipolar digital world, whereby a group  

of authoritarian or authoritarian-leaning  countries are coalescing behind a variant  

of the Chinese model. Whereas many democratic  countries are shifting towards the European  

rights-driven model. So we see this battle  emerging between techno-democracies on one  

hand and techno-autocracies on the other. And in  this model, it is for the U.S. to choose whether  

it wants to consolidate a united democratic  front, move closer to the EU, and then challenge  

the Chinese digital authoritarianism,  or whether it will let China win.