Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Digital Technology

The idealized vision of the Internet is a seamless global commons governed by technocratic consensus. In reality, the network has become increasingly fragmented in recent years, especially as it emerges as an arena for geopolitical contestation. In her recent book, Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology, Anu Bradford explores the nature—and possible consequences—of this fragmentation. In particular, her book takes a deep dive into three competing models of digital governance: the EU’s “rights-driven” model, the US’s “market-driven” model, and China’s “state-driven” model.

Join Planetary Politics and Columbia University’s European Legal Studies Center as we discuss these models with Anu Bradford, and consider what they mean for the Internet, and more generally global politics and the balance of power in the twenty-first century. Is the Internet irretrievably fragmented into the much-dreaded Splinternet? What does this mean for global flows of data, as well as for freedom of expression, human rights, and democracy? Is there a way to balance growing calls for digital sovereignty with the desire to maintain a global network? And finally, are there other models—perhaps not discussed in the book—that may also be emerging, and that may also come to define the global digital ecosystem?

SPEAKER:

Anu Bradford, Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organization, Columbia Law School

MODERATOR:

Akash Kapur, Senior Fellow, Planetary Politics, New America