Professors in Print: "Digital Empires" by Anu Bradford
Summary
TLDRAnu 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
- đ Anu Bradford is a professor at Columbia Law School, focusing on EU law, digital regulation, international trade, and antitrust.
- đ She authored 'Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology' to explore the choices and consequences in the digital economy's regulation.
- đ There's a global consensus on the need for digital economy regulation, but no agreement on its form.
- đïž Bradford identifies three models of digital economy regulation: the American market-driven, Chinese state-driven, and European rights-driven models.
- đ 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.
- đĄïž The European model prioritizes individual rights, democratic structures, and fair distribution of digital economy benefits.
- đ These 'digital empires' are not confined within their borders but are expanding their influence through the export of their regulatory models.
- đșđž The U.S. tech companies, like Facebook, provide global services but are also associated with significant global harms.
- đšđł China is exporting digital infrastructure, building networks and surveillance technologies, spreading its norms and standards.
- đȘđș Europe, lacking in technology development, leads in regulatory development, influencing global tech through the 'Brussels effect'.
- đ€ The digital economy is either governed by authoritarians or tech companies, challenging liberal democracy.
- đ 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
đ 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.
đ 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄDigital Empires
đĄEU Law
đĄDigital Regulation
đĄMarket-driven Model
đĄState-driven Model
đĄRights-driven Model
đĄBrussels Effect
đĄTechnopolar
đĄDemocratic Constraints
đĄDigital Silk Road
đĄBipolar Digital World
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, Â
digital regulation, and international trade and antitrust. For the past two years, I have been Â
working on a book called "Digital Empires:Â The Global Battle to Regulate Technology."
I wrote "Digital Empires" to lay bare the choices that we are facing as governments, Â
as tech companies, or as digital citizens on the direction of the digital economy. Â
I really wanted to explain with this book what are the forces that are shaping those choices? Â
What are the consequences or stakes involved at making those choices? Because ultimately, Â
they will determine whether we as humans control technology or Â
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 Â
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. Â
We have the American market-driven model, the Chinese state-driven model, and the European Â
rights-driven model. So the American model is focused on free Internet, free speech, Â
and incentives to innovate. The Chinese state-driven model focuses on preserving the Â
power of the state, making China the technological superpower, but also leveraging technology towards Â
surveillance and censorship to entrench the power of the Chinese Communist Party. Then the European Â
model preserves the fundamental rights of individuals and the democratic structures Â
of the society, and also focuses on more fair distribution of benefits from the digital economy.
The reason I call these âdigital empiresâ is that none of these regulatory models Â
are confined to the jurisdiction itself. Instead, each digital empire is engaged Â
in imperial expansion. They are exporting their regulatory models abroad and then, Â
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 Â
the infrastructure, and the Europeans are exporting their regulatory power.
So the American digital empire provides the foundation for the digital economy as Â
it exists today. Facebook, for instance, has 3 billion users in 160 countries. So Â
the American tech companies are providing services and products that the consumers Â
around the world love and have come to depend on. But they are also responsible Â
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, Â
Latin America, Asia, parts of Europe. It is building telecommunications networks, Â
undersea cables, and surveillance technologies, and in that process, Â
exporting Chinese norms and technology standards.
Europeans, on the other hand, they are not really developing the technologies; Â
but they are mainly developing the regulations that govern these technologies. Â
So through a phenomenon that I have called the Brussels effect, Â
often the European regulations become global regulations because the global tech companies Â
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 Â
be regulated. There are many leading thinkers who refer to tech companies Â
as the new governors or describe the world not as bipolar or multipolar but technopolar. And Â
it is true that regulating these tech companies can be difficult.
Tech companies do remain beholden to regulators. Â
But in the U.S., the problem is really the dysfunction of the Congress that Â
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 Â
or enforcement. And that leads to a rather disturbing conclusion that the digital economy Â
is either governed by authoritarians or the tech companies. And those are the true digital empires. Â
So that should be a very unsettling conclusion for anybody who believes Â
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 Â
at is that the American digital empire is really declining. There's been a tremendous backlash in Â
this excessive power of American tech companies, both in the U.S. but also across the world. Â
So there have been many instances where, for instance, American tech companies Â
have provided a platform for hatred and disinformation, election interference, Â
you name it. And that has then prompted a reaction in other governments and even in the U.S. that we Â
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. Â
Instead, what we are seeing is an emergence of a bipolar digital world, whereby a group Â
of authoritarian or authoritarian-leaning countries are coalescing behind a variant Â
of the Chinese model. Whereas many democratic countries are shifting towards the European Â
rights-driven model. So we see this battle emerging between techno-democracies on one Â
hand and techno-autocracies on the other. And in this model, it is for the U.S. to choose whether Â
it wants to consolidate a united democratic front, move closer to the EU, and then challenge Â
the Chinese digital authoritarianism, or whether it will let China win.
Voir Plus de Vidéos Connexes
Anu Bradford - Digital empires: The global battle to regulate technology
Anu Bradford - The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World
Exploring European digital sovereignty with Julia Pohle
The Next Global Superpower Isn't Who You Think | Ian Bremmer | TED
Data Ekonomi Digital
Why central banks want to launch digital currencies | CNBC Reports
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)