Data is now at the center of global trade. For decades, international trade in goods and services set the pace of globalization. After the global financial crisis, however, growth in trade plateaued, and in its place came an explosion of cross-border data flows. Measured by bandwidth, cross-border data flows grew roughly 112 times over from 2008 to 2020.
Read Here | Foreign Affairs
From now on, every country or group of countries must ask itself whether it produces the technologies it needs or has guaranteed, unfettered, long-term access to them. A country that answers no is vulnerable to technological coercion that is no less severe than the military coercion of yesteryear.
Read Here | Project Syndicate
Big Tech companies do own their respective platforms. They have the right to devise terms of service and standards. Those are decided unilaterally, even if some companies undertake an elaborate exercise of consulting affected stakeholders. But their actions do not follow due process, and they rarely explain their decisions clearly.
Read Here | Foreign Policy
Facebook declared in the newspaper ads that it was “standing up to Apple” and warned that such a change will be the ruin of small businesses. More like the ruin of Facebook. The company is terrified that giving users single-click power to control their own information will force people to realize just how loud is the data-sucking sound coming from Facebook’s app.
Read Here | New York Times
Democratic societies, in particular, are in dire need of a frank conversation about the role persuasion plays in them and how technologies are enabling powerful interests to target audiences. In a society where public opinion is a ruling force, there is always a risk of it being mobilized for ill purposes…
Read Here | Foreign Policy
As convenient as their technology is, the emergence of such dominant corporations should ring alarm bells—not just because they hold so much economic power but also because they wield so much control over political communication.
Read Here | Foreign Affairs
The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the market power of large technology companies and the inadequacy of current digital governance and regulation. What should policymakers do to address Big Tech’s growing clout and build an equitable digital economy?
Read Here | Project Syndicate
Semiconductor manufacturer Intel’s latest quarterly corporate report ominously noted some serious potential technological vulnerabilities capable of undermining America’s prosperity as well as its national security. Intel, of course, is America’s largest producer of semiconductors, and one of the world’s biggest microchip manufacturers. In fact, it’s the only major U.S.-owned producer that still manufactures state-of-the-art logic chips domestically—or at least is still trying to.
Read Here | The National Interest
A spiralling tech war between the United States and China has reinvigorated Beijing’s ambitions for semiconductor independence in recent months and turbocharged efforts in Washington to thwart its plans, leaving chip-making powerhouse Taiwan caught in the crossfire.
Read Here | South China Morning Post
