China vs. the World?

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Privacy, Technology and Perspective

China vs. the World? This week, let’s consider what may be the new world order that is evolving with respect to data, technology, and especially artificial intelligence (“AI”) by highlighting this week’s news:

India just banned 118 Chinese-made apps based on complaints that apps were “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India” so as to prejudice India’s sovereignty, integrity, and national security.  The apps themselves belong to some of China’s big-tech companies, including Ant Group, Baidu and Tencent.  You can review a list of the banned apps and read the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s press release by clicking on the following link:

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1650669

In June, India banned 59 other Chinese-made apps, including TikTok, following a well-publicized border dispute.  For more on the previous ban and its background, you can click on the following link to an article published by the BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53232486

Recall that in August, the United States similarly targeted TikTok when President Trump issued his Executive Order on Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok, which you can review by clicking on the following link:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-tiktok/

And while we have written before on the U.S. – E.U. Digital Divide (you can read our post here: https://www.hoschmorris.com/privacy-plus-news/the-eu-us-digital-divide), there has long been concern about China, as a competitive superpower, winning both the 5G and the AI race.  Aside from competitive concerns, there are legal ones.  In particular, the United States, India and other have been weary of Chinese-made apps and Chinese companies because Chinese laws give its government largely unfettered access to data.  For example, China’s National Intelligence Law holds Chinese companies legally responsible for providing access, cooperation and support for Chinese intelligence gathering. 

Now, recent geo-political tensions, as well as rising isolationism and nationalism, appear to be driving bans.  India self-describes its most recent ban as a “targeted move to ensure safety, security and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace.”  Yet, confining cyberspace to a country’s own cyberspace seems antithetical to the Internet as we know it in this country as a “vibrant and competitive free market that...exists for the Internet and benefit of all Americans, with a minimum of government regulation.” (Section 230(b) of the Communications Decency Act).

We doubt we’re alone in suspecting that these “bans” foretell a growing divide, and a re-conception of the online-to-offline (“O2O”) world, along with its leaders, its peoples, their alliances, and their economies.

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Hosch & Morris, PLLC is a Dallas-based boutique law firm dedicated to data protection, privacy, the Internet and technology. Open the Future℠.