Stories from Abroad

The European Union’s executive arm joined Google and a group of free-speech advocates to oppose expanding the bloc’s “right to be forgotten” beyond European borders. In arguments before the EU’s top court, the executive arm, as well as countries including Ireland and Greece, argued that a global application of the EU right would stretch the EU’s privacy laws beyond their intended scope—echoing at least some of Google’s arguments. “We don’t see extraterritoriality” in EU privacy law, said Antoine Buchet, a lawyer for the bloc’s executive arm, during questioning by EU judges.

Google will appeal an order to extend the European Union’s “right to be forgotten” to its search engines across the globe, arguing before the EU’s top court that the order encourages countries to assert sovereignty beyond their borders. National laws used to stop at the border. In cyberspace, they increasingly stretch around the world, as regulators in Europe, the US and Canada have started asserting legal authority over the internet across country lines.

The European Union approved Apple’s planned acquisition of British music discovery app Shazam, saying an EU antitrust investigation showed it would not harm competition in the bloc. The deal, announced in December 2017, would help the iPhone maker better compete with Spotify, the industry leader in music streaming services.

As international agreements come under fire from current politics, it becomes ever more important to investigate the effect of such agreements. The telecommunication sector is of special interest due to its growing importance in the digital age. International law came into play in 1998 when the Agreement on Basic Telecommunications (BTA) entered into force. It demanded far-reaching liberalization reforms and was signed and ratified by 66 countries. A difference-in-differences estimator is used to analyze if the treaty had an impact on investments in telecommunications.

An apparent Iranian influence operation targeting internet users worldwide is significantly bigger than previously identified, encompassing a sprawling network of anonymous websites and social media accounts in 11 different languages. Facebook and other companies recently said that multiple social media accounts and websites were part of an Iranian project to covertly influence public opinion in other countries. A Reuters analysis has identified 10 more sites and dozens of social media accounts across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Ever since its founding 20 years ago in a Silicon Valley garage, Google has proudly and often ostentatiously held itself up as the architect of a new model for corporate virtue. Google, they said, would always put long-term values over short-term financial gain. “Making the world a better place” would be a primary business goal, and Google’s ethical compass could be summed up in a simple and celebrated motto: “Don’t be evil.” Now, Google appears to be changing its mind.

Much has been made of the digital underpinning of many of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals – gender equality, good health, quality education, industry innovation, and smart and sustainable cities – and the need to set ICT sub-targets for them.

From Brazil to Italy to Canada, even the most reluctant carriers are now building, including Deutsche Telekom and British Telecom. Credit Suisse believes that for an incumbent, “The cost of building fibre is less than the cost of not building fibre.” 20% growth is common. Telefónica Spain has passed twenty million premises - over 70% - and continues at two million a year. Telefónica Brazil is going from seven million in 2018 to ten million in 2020. China has 328 million connected and added 5M in the month of June.

The European Commission is drafting new rules designed to rid social media platforms of terrorist content after concluding that a voluntary program wasn't working. It had previously asked tech companies, including Facebook, Twitter and Google, to remove terrorist propaganda within an hour. "With regards to terrorist content, the results have been positive but progress is not sufficient," said a spokesperson for the Commission.

How do you effectively govern a country that’s home to one in five people on the planet, with an increasingly complex economy and society, if you don’t allow public debate, civil activism, and electoral feedback? Hu Jintao, China’s leader from 2002 to 2012, had attempted to solve this problem by permitting a modest democratic thaw, allowing avenues for grievances to reach the ruling class. His successor, Xi Jinping, has reversed that trend.