A wake-up call for US digital hegemony dreams

ON Tuesday, Facebook was repor ted as say ing t hat it might quit Europe if t he ban on sha ring data wit h t he US gets enforced, which beca me possible a f ter a r uling by t he Europea n Court of Just ice in Ju ly found “t here were insuf f icient sa feg uards aga inst snooping by US i ntel l igence agencies”.

If that came true, that would be a huge loss for Facebook. So the question becomes: Why does it insist on sharing user data with the US, despite such a huge risk?

That’s because the US tries to lead, dominate and reshape the rules of global flows of data. There was a time when the US dominated in the world digital economy, but the emergence of mass mobile terminals in Europe and Asia-Pacific granted them the ability to challenge this old hegemony.

In order to maintain advantages in digital economy as an extension of its global strategic advantages, the US hopes to enforce its rules on the rest of the world.

Protection of data is a key point of disputes. Since the NSA’s Prism surveillance programme was exposed in 2013, the EU has been accelerating legislation to regulate trans-border data flows to protect personal and business privacy, yet the US insists on “free” flow of data over borders to maintain its own dominance.

These tensions were intensified by the above-mentioned ruling of the EU court in July, which actually invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield Agreement. In other words, the previous negotiations between the two sides on transborder data flows were made obsolete.

Europe is only one place where the US hopes to implement its own rules. In the Asia-Pacific region, the US relies on multilateral agreements to form a circle that allows data to flow “freely” over borders.

Sometimes it uses long-arm jurisdiction to strike at enterprises that protect data and curb unnecessary flow over borders, and TikTok is just one victim of this practice.

It should be noted the US’ advocated “free” flow of data is not free at all. On the contrary, it hopes to bring data under its control.

There are no signs Europe will give up ground to please the US, and China is firm in defending its own sovereignty in the sphere of data, too. It’s time for the US to wake up from its illusion of controlling everything.