in overall democratic rights worldwide — as identified in Freedom House’s research — the question of how much and what kind of regulatory power governments should have over technology companies is both urgent and delicate., we found that 48 of 70 countries surveyed pursued at least one form of regulatory action on online content, personal data or competition against technology firms over the last year. More than a dozen new laws threaten the future of free expression online.
Dozens of laws introduced to regulate corporate data management are also ripe for government exploitation. Many require companies to undermine end-to-end encryption — a security method that prevents data from being accessed by anyone other than sender and recipient — in their products, or mandate that user data be stored on servers located within the country. In practice, weakened encryption and domestic data storage expand government ability to access people’s most intimate information.
But competition policy also can be crafted and used for political gain. For instance, Chinese regulators have been among the most aggressive in addressing monopolistic practices by the country’s tech giants. However, their interventions — such as forced company restructurings and politicized pressure on business leaders — have raised concerns that the government is more interested in reining in these companies’ autonomy and influence than in fair competition and consumer protection.
opinion You have no rights online, that's the problem. Big tech controls the soapbox of our age. This needs to change.
opinion