Edited by Sarah Hesterman
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| News Roundup Top Tech Diplomacy Resources In the latest episode of the Tech Diplomacy podcast, Carine Smith Ihenacho, Chief Governance and Compliance Officer at the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, delves into how the Fund works, its views on responsible artificial intelligence, and its impacts on climate and the environment. This write-up from Jovan Kurbalija, the Executive Director of Diplo, examines how digital terminology is shaping diplomatic discourse and clarifies digital, cyber, and tech diplomacy. Michelle Giuda, the CEO of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University, recently sat down with Ed Ludlow and Caroline Hyde at Bloomberg to discuss critical tech, politics, and regulation. Watch here. Cyber diplomacy has emerged as a tool to address the complexities of the digital era, where tech giants, state actors, and malicious entities vie for influence. Yasin Tokat assesses the need for international collaboration on cybersecurity standards, frameworks and agreements, internet governance, and ethical technology to mitigate cyber threats and foster a safer, more resilient cyberspace for Modern Diplomacy. Global The United Nations Global Digital Compact was adopted last month. Learn more about the Compact’s background, the topics it covers, and how it has developed from the Digital Watch Observatory’s useful explainer. Catch up on the latest global updates in cybersecurity rules with this write-up from the World Economic Forum. North America The threat of adversaries’ use of quantum computing to undermine the United States’ cybersecurity is growing, and although the government has made strides to address this, key data will be left vulnerable to exploitation without swift action. Last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a groundbreaking law set to restrict social media companies from “knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent,” set to come into effect in 2027 amid mounting concerns over the impact of social media platforms’ designs on young peoples’ mental health and well-being. Despite fears AI would have a disruptive impact on the 2024 U.S. elections, the emerging tech has proven less influential than anticipated, with political deepfakes and AI-driven misinformation playing only a minor role in wider disinformation campaigns. However, experts warn AI’s influence could expand significantly in future elections as these tools improve, Andrew R. Chow writes for TIME. This doesn’t mean AI isn’t serving as a useful tool for foreign influence operations, however, with Russia serving as “the most prolific” foreign actor using AI to target the 2024 U.S. presidential election in an effort to manipulate opinions of and discourse on “divisive issues” and candidates. Furthermore, disinformation surrounding the election has surged to unprecedented levels, with false and manipulated news being amplified on social media platforms like X to mislead voters, target presidential candidates, and widen political divides. “Smears, lies and dirty tricks — what we call disinformation today — have long been a feature of American presidential election campaigns. Two weeks before this year’s vote, however, the torrent of half-truths, lies and fabrications, both foreign and homegrown, has exceeded anything that came before, according to officials and researchers who document disinformation,” Steven Lee Meyers reports for The New York Times. Despite concerns, Jen Easterly, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, claimed earlier this month election infrastructure has “never been more secure,” stating that despite ongoing threats to democratic processes, she maintains confidence election integrity will be preserved come November 5th. Canada’s top cybersecurity agency revealed this month that Chinese state-backed hackers breached at least twenty Canadian government networks over the past four years, targeting critical infrastructure and research sectors, and warns cyber espionage is likely to intensify as economic tensions with China grow. Last week, the White House issued a release detailing the National Security Memorandum on Artificial Intelligence, which establishes a strategic framework for the U.S. to lead in safe and secure AI development while protecting national security. Key initiatives include enhancing semiconductor supply chains, prioritizing AI safety, and collaborating with allies to shape global AI governance in alignment with democratic values. Six U.S. senators are urging the Biden administration to demand changes to the UN’s cybercrime treaty, warning it may enable authoritarian regimes to suppress human rights, invade citizens’ privacy, and undermine cybersecurity research in a letter to top administration officials that warned the nation “must not align itself with repressive regimes by supporting a Convention that undermines human rights and U.S. interests” Google has signed an unprecedented deal with California’s Kairos Power to power data centers with small nuclear reactors, aimed at addressing the soaring energy demands fueled by developing sophisticated AI tools and increasing cloud storage. The deal follows similar moves by Microsoft and Amazon, signaling an interest of tech giants in nuclear power as a sustainable energy source. Africa Last week, a Nigerian court ordered the release of Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan, who has been detained since February on money laundering charges, so he may seek medical treatment abroad. Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission withdrew the charges against Gambaryan but stated the case against the crypto exchange platform will continue. Senegal’s first satellite recently joined over sixty African satellites from seventeen countries in orbit, demonstrating an increasing interest in space exploration and technology across the continent as lower launch costs allow smaller nations to bolster initiatives in a growing space sector, Chris Baraniuk reports for the BBC. Los Angeles and African cities are exploring “smart city diplomacy” to tackle shared global challenges like climate change and tech governance and position cities as pivotal actors in global governance: “city diplomacy—or how cities represent themselves and their interests, including to one another, in the international political arena—is a crucial lever for achieving local sustainable development,” Nanjira Sambuli writes for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Google will invest 5.8 million USD to boost AI skills in sub-Saharan Africa and support digital workforce development, focusing on regional innovation and workforce development. In a “massive cleanup,” TikTok has removed nearly 12 million videos across nine African countries for policy violations as “various African nations have intensified their oversight of the platform,” Sylvia Duruson reports. The platform has also sought to strengthen privacy controls and promote digital safety to address challenges like hate speech and protecting the well-being of young users in the region. Earlier this month, the Global Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Summit took place in Cairo, Egypt, convening representatives from over 100 nations to facilitate collaboration and knowledge-sharing on digital public infrastructure in support of the Sustainable Development Goals. Seven “Big Bets” were prioritized for 2025: knowledge sharing and stakeholder engagement, universal safeguards, inclusive innovation, thriving and capable local digital ecosystems, sustainability and green practices, financing DPI, and developing interoperability and standards for DPI. Bernard Ngalim explores the challenges facing digital democracy across the continent, including shortcomings in internet access, government restrictions, cybersecurity, and more in this piece for Tech Policy Press, offering key recommendations “to improve access to digital and social media tools that are crucial to democratic governance in Africa.” Asia Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics are exploring chip-making projects in the United Arab Emirates potentially worth 100 billion USD, aligning with the UAE’s push to expand global chip production amid U.S. concerns over the potential for advanced technology transfers to China. In Myanmar, residents face “severe internet blackouts” and social media and VPN bans – however, despite ranking as one of the most restricted internet environments globally, citizens continue to find workarounds to stay connected with costly and risky alternatives like “satellite services, mesh networks, even walkie-talkies to communicate and work,” Nu Nu Lusan reports for Rest of World. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has launched a checklist to operationalize UN-endorsed cyber norms across Southeast Asia, marking a major step toward promoting responsible government behavior in cyberspace and outlining actionable steps for members to protect critical infrastructure, tackle cybercrime, and engage responsibly with global cyber norms. Implementing these measures, though, will require a substantial commitment from national defense, intelligence, and cybersecurity agencies across the region, Gatra Priyandita writes for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. China is making headway in sectors like electric vehicles, solar energy, and battery technology, according to recent analysis from Bloomberg demonstrating that despite U.S. export controls and trade restrictions, the “Made in China 2025” strategy, “an industrial policy blueprint unveiled a decade ago to make the nation a leader in emerging technologies,” has largely secured the nation’s global leadership in multiple key tech areas, intensifying the race between the world’s two biggest economies. Singapore plans to inject 332 million USD into its Startup SG Equity scheme, “which aims to enhance private-sector investments in deep-tech startups within the city-state,” seeking to strengthen the nation’s innovation landscape. China is using new export restrictions and enacting greater control over state-owned companies to consolidate its near-monopoly on rare earth minerals, including recent measures to restrict foreign access to minerals crucial for semiconductor manufacturing and reducing foreign-owned refining operations in the country. These moves have sparked a global push for alternative supply chains, although challenges remain to rival China’s efficiency and advanced refinement tech, Keith Bradsher reports for The New York Times. Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate has intensified recruitment efforts by utilizing social media to target “disaffected Muslims” in the U.S. and Europe through sophisticated propaganda campaigns according to U.S. officials, seeking to exploit alienation among Muslim communities abroad through digital platforms and leveraging AI tools to bolster their influence. Google has announced a 1 billion USD investment into building a new data center in Thailand, with the aim of expanding the tech giant’s cloud infrastructure and advancing AI capabilities in Asia. Europe German authorities have shut down forty-seven illegal cryptocurrency exchanges accused of facilitating money laundering by bypassing anti-money laundering measures and facilitating other cybercrimes. Despite seizing crucial data revealing customers who interacted with the exchanges, authorities admit that challenges exist in prosecuting those involved. Major tech firms like Google, Amazon, and OpenAI are lobbying the EU to ease enforcement measures in its groundbreaking AI Act, seeking more flexible guidelines while arguing overly strict rules could hinder innovation. Nonprofits and smaller European tech firms, however, are warning against limiting accountability measures: “as we enter the stage where many of the AI Act’s obligations are spelled out in more detail, we have to be careful not to allow the big AI players to water down important transparency mandates,” says AI policy lead at Mozilla Foundation Maximilian Gahntz. Sexually explicit deepfakes are increasingly being weaponized against women politicians in the EU, and although recent legislation has addressed online gender-based abuse, advocates argue stronger enforcement and quicker action is needed as manipulated sexualized content poses a troubling “chilling effect” on women’s political participation, Roos Döll writes for The Parliament Magazine. Russia is running a massive disinformation campaign in the Balkans, disseminating pro-Kremlin narratives through automated articles shared on “local-language websites masquerading as legitimate news sources,” according to an investigation from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Despite low readership, “for Russia, this is information warfare. Just as with drones, low-cost attacks that fail 99 percent of the time are justified by the 1 percent that succeed. These sites are the drones of information warfare,” says Peter Benzoni, an investigative data and research analyst at the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy. Microsoft is accusing Google of orchestrating “shadow campaigns” to “discredit the software giant with regulators in Europe,” accusations which have only intensified a longstanding rivalry between the two tech giants amidst escalating regulatory scrutiny. Finnish Member of the European Parliament Henna Virkkunen has been tapped as the EU’s tech security commissioner, and has made clear she hopes Europe will become an “AI continent” through proposing a series of initiatives to facilitate domestic AI development while continuing to “remain open to third-country providers.” José Ignacio Torreblanca and Giorgos Verdi assess the global influence of Europe as a tech regulator and its less impressive digital power, requiring a “grand strategy” to boost innovation, economic security, and international influence in this thoughtful policy brief for the European Council on Foreign Relations. The European Commission is warning member states against the creation of enforcement loopholes in the Digital Services Act that would benefit Big Tech, highlighting concerns over parts of the Act being duplicated across other legislation, as this could complicate efforts to enforce it and facilitate companies in finding ways to evade adherence with its provisions. Latin America Latin America has the potential to become a cyber diplomacy leader through embracing a cyber strategy that would enable the region to secure its digital economy, promote security, and shape international cyber governance, Guilherme Schneider argues for Modern Diplomacy. Uruguay has emerged as an unexpected hub of Tesla drivers despite having no official dealership, as private dealers are increasingly importing electric vehicles from the company, in addition to over fifty other companies, directly from China. Tax incentives and well-funded, wide-ranging EV charging networks have laid a foundation for a thriving market in the country. Earlier this month, Brazil’s Supreme Court lifted its ban on Elon Musk’s social media platform X after the company paid millions of dollars in fines and blocked accounts accused of spreading false information. The platform also had to agree to appointing a local representative to reverse the ban, following an initial refusal to comply with court orders regarding misinformation linked to the 2022 Brazilian election. A major bank in Bolivia has launched a new custody service enabling clients to buy, sell, and transfer Tether’s USDt stablecoin within a regulated framework, marking a significant shift in the country’s stance on crypto after lifting its ban on bitcoin and crypto payments earlier this year. Oceania The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is partnering with Adelaide University’s Australian Institute for Machine Learning to develop groundbreaking deep learning tools seeking to speed up critical data processing and enhance areas like fraud detection and customer service. The recent hacking of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat has highlighted critical cybersecurity gaps in the region. Suspected to be linked to a Chinese-based group, the incident underscores increasing vulnerabilities faced by Pacific nations amid geopolitical tensions and the importance of building capabilities to deter future threats and develop self-reliance, Dr. Fitriani and Blake Johnson report for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Security Bureau have issued new security guidelines to protect domestic tech start-ups from foreign state threats and cyber and espionage attacks, offering guidance on embedding security into business practices without stifling innovation. In Fiji, the integration of mobile wallets into the Reserve Bank’s National Payment System is progressing the nation towards becoming cashless, enabling quick money transfers and promoting digital and financial inclusion to strengthen the nation’s financial ecosystem and reach underserved Fijians. The Australian government is considering a “digital platform levy” to get Meta to pay for news content on its platforms following an intense stand-off, marking a shift from previous approaches under the News Media Bargaining Code and serving as a possible resolution to the ongoing dispute. “When Meta pulled its funding from Australian news outlets in March, the government was left with a choice: it could live with the humiliation of letting the company walk away, as well as the fury of cash-poor news outlets, or it could use its powers under the Coalition’s News Media Bargaining Code to try to force one of the world’s biggest tech giants to pay up — if only it were that simple,” Ange Lavoipierre writes. |
Edited by Sarah Hesterman