by N. Peter Kramer
Germany, Denmark, Estonia and Finland “want to be more self-determined with democratic partners around the world” and to build “on a strong transatlantic relationship,” the country’s leaders said in their letter to the Commission. It means for these EU member states that the U.S., under President Joe Biden, is still the preferred global partner on tech regulation, as it is on other things.
Ben Scott, a former aide to presidential candidate and former first lady Hillary Clinton and at the moment director of Reset, a group that lobbies for digital democracy, gives the EU the advice’ don’t bet on Washington’. “Biden genuinely wants to legislate, but there are other priorities and U.S. politics continues to be paralysed by polarisation,” Scott said in a recent interview, adding that an American version of the EU’s Digital Services Act will likely not see the light of day anytime soon. In his opinion, “the Republicans have not even managed to clearly distance themselves from QAnon, which is a symptom of the very disease regulation should help cure,” referring to the conspiracy theory which has grown into a militant cult on platforms like Facebook.
It seems to be the other way around. “In Washington D.C., many are hoping that the EU can solve the problem for America,” Scott thinks. “The sunk costs of EU regulation would be huge for tech companies, but they would only occur once. The EU could therefore trigger a cascade effect, with platforms adapting their business model not just in Europe, but everywhere.”
The main challenge for the Biden administration “is therefore to adjust the priorities of U.S. economic diplomacy,” according to Scott. He acknowledged that Washington, as many governments, is often expected to defend domestic industries abroad. But, he said, a good example was set by Barack Obama, who managed something quite similar with his support for the Paris Climate Agreement, which was (and still is, after Biden’s restoring of the US support) quite unpopular in the US.
