The $1.2 billion fine that the European Union imposed on Facebook owner Meta this week for violating user privacy was more than just punishment.
It demonstrated Europe’s determination to enact legally enforceable rules in cyberspace to prevent 21st century technology tools from infringing on users’ privacy, safety and other personal rights. Or prevent it from being used to undermine elections, democratic institutions, or public trust.
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While Europe seeks a joint approach with Washington to regulate cyberspace, the United States prioritizes voluntary corporate action over legal prescriptions in Brussels.
Cyber business is global, so the rules and regulations need to be global as well. But China clearly has no interest in joining such an international effort to leave the EU and the US.
Lawmakers on both sides of the Washington aisle share many of Europe’s concerns about an uncontrolled, artificial intelligence-powered internet. But there are few signs of a common transatlantic approach to the problem.
The main reason is that the US wants companies to self-regulate, while the EU has low trust in them. Europe’s new digital services law requires 20 of the world’s largest companies to report annually on how they are fighting evils such as disinformation, security threats and election manipulation.
One of the lessons that governments have learned from their current efforts to regulate the Internet is that it has the potential to foster more trans-Atlantic cooperation.
That is, cyberspace should have been regulated much earlier.
The $1.2 billion fine imposed on Facebook’s owner, American tech giant Meta, in Europe this week was definitely eye-catching.
But for Meta, money is petty cash and not as important as the message.
The message is about setting enforceable rules in governing cyberspace: the internet, social media platforms like Facebook, messaging apps, and the latest policy challenge: artificial intelligence.
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While Europe seeks a joint approach with Washington to regulate cyberspace, the United States prioritizes voluntary corporate action over legal prescriptions in Brussels.
This week’s lawsuit was about privacy. The European Data Protection Commission has ruled that Facebook failed to ensure that the content of European users was not shared with US intelligence agencies when moving it to the US.
But it was just the latest signal that the 27-nation European Union is increasingly determined to take the lead in broad regulation of cyberspace. the aim? To ensure that 21st century technology tools do not violate your privacy, safety or other personal rights. Or prevent it from being used to undermine elections, democratic institutions, or community and social trust.
The EU is focused on cleaning itself first, and collectively constitutes the second largest economy in the world.
But EU policymakers say the scope and complexity of cyberbusiness, especially the richest and most powerful among them, will depend on the success of regulation, and indeed the future of the Internet itself, on the other two major economies. We know that it means that it is likely to rest on the great powers China and the United States. .
Patrick Semansky/AP
China is unlikely to join efforts to set international rules. For Xi Jinping, technology is about controlling rather than empowering individuals. Far from embracing the Internet’s nascent spirit as a truly global medium, China has built a “Great Firewall” to block foreign sites it opposes, advocating a model in which countries control their own cyber networks.
Europe’s efforts to find common cause with the United States, therefore, are likely to be the key to preserving the Internet’s global advantages while curbing excesses.
US lawmakers from both parties share many of the EU’s cyberspace concerns. But there are few signs of a common Western approach, at least so far.
And Facebook’s fines provided a clue as to why.
This is partly a matter of different political cultures. The European Union’s Bill of Rights explicitly protects the privacy of citizens. There is no constitutional equivalent in the United States, and the First Amendment focuses heavily on the free speech privileges of his platform online and its users.
At least for Facebook it’s probably solvable. Other US-based tech giants also have vast amounts of European content, and EU and US negotiators have finalized a long-overdue data deal to address European countries’ concerns about information sharing. It’s getting
But a more fundamental difference lies in how tech companies should be regulated.
There are some areas where we agree. Both EU and US authorities have imposed penalties on companies that misuse or fail to secure personal data.
However, there is a big gap when it comes to online content.
The Washington government is working to ensure that tech companies properly regulate this content themselves. Meanwhile, the European Union introduced the Digital Services Act (DSA) last year, giving 20 very large companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Alibaba and TikTok an annual briefing on how they are fighting disinformation. obliged to Threats to the safety of children and women, election manipulation, among others.
It also needs European regulators to investigate the algorithms that determine what kind of content is sent to which users.
And the maximum fine is 6% of a company’s global turnover, which would make Facebook’s privacy fine smaller.
John Tys/AP/Files
While it will take some time to see the effects of the new rules (Facebook’s fine this week stems from complaints first filed a decade ago), the EU has stressed that it is serious about enforcing the rules. ing.
Shortly after the bill was introduced late last year, the European Commission’s Values and Transparency Officer, the EU’s enforcement arm, reportedly suspended a number of US tech journalists from the platform, citing Twitter owner Elon.・I criticized Mr. Musk. Vera Julova tweeted that the move was “disturbing” and issued a warning. “The EU Digital Services Act calls for media freedoms and fundamental rights.
At least for now, it is inconceivable that U.S. officials would do the same.
But if the US and Europe move toward a common approach, the catalyst could be artificial intelligence, a new technological concern shared on both sides of the Atlantic.
The U.S. government and the EU express their concerns in strikingly similar terms, highlighting familiar policy differences.
The Biden administration’s AI bill of rights last year took the form of a voluntary policy guide.
The EU’s planned AI law will impose a number of explicit requirements on technology companies that offer AI applications such as chatbots, facial recognition and biometric monitoring. It would ban applications that “use technologies that subconsciously or intentionally manipulate, exploit people’s vulnerabilities, or are used for social scoring.”
Still, one of the lessons governments have learned from Internet regulation efforts is that it has the potential to foster greater trans-Atlantic cooperation.
Like banks during the 2008 financial crisis, it’s not that tech giants are too big to fail or too big to regulate.
It was too late to regulate.
