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Matthew Burbidge.

Consider these two pieces of contradictory news. One, a US State Department cable from February 18 in which US diplomats are directed to lobby against efforts to regulate US technology companies’ handling of foreigners’ data. The administration is now following a more interventionist approach, as some countries, particularly in Europe, try to limit how these technology firms process and store the data of their citizens. The cable, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and seen by Reuters, says laws aimed at protecting data sovereignty would “disrupt global data flows, increase costs and cybersecurity laws, limit AI and cloud services and expand government control in ways that can undermine civil liberties and enable censorship”.

The cable called out GDPR in particular as legislation that had “unnecessarily burdensome data processing restrictions and cross-border flow requirements”. Steep fines have been meted out to US tech firms over data transfers, including Meta and Amazon. China was mentioned for its restrictive data policies, which, said the department, was aimed at expanding its global influence and access to international data for surveillance.