Combating Digital Authoritarianism: U.S. Alternative Needed to Counter Data Localization and Government Control

 

This NSI Report:

  • Describes the global trend toward data localization—policies that require data to be stored within national borders and often impede cross-border flows.
  • Explains the digital divide between authoritarian regimes’ use of data localization as a key means of information and political control, and more nascent efforts at a democratic alternative.
  • Argues that a U.S. data privacy and security framework is needed to counter the rising authoritarian model that is fostering a global splinternet and debilitating democratic values across the globe.

Read the complete paper.

About the author:

Dr. Andrea Little Limbago is the Chief Social Scientist at Virtru.  She is an NSI Senior Fellow and also serves as NSI’s Associate Director of Emerging Technologies.