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POLITICO’s weekly transatlantic tech newsletter for global technology elites and political influencers.
By MARK SCOTT
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DIGITAL BRIDGE IS COMING AT YOU a day early this week. I’m Mark Scott, POLITICO’s chief technology correspondent, and if you’ve got time, I’m testifying to a British parliamentary committee on May 23 on digital competition regulation (watch along here) and speaking on a panel, the same day, on trade policy in the digital era (watch that here.) Warning: It’s pretty much the only time you’ll see me in a suit.
OK, let’s get down to business:
— Washington and Brussels are borrowing heavily from each other on social media and artificial intelligence rules.
— The Mozilla Foundation’s Mark Surman on why he’s optimistic on tech rulemaking — and why politicians need to keep going on AI laws.
— Twitter has a new chief executive. Here are three urgent policy areas that Linda Yaccarino needs to sink her teeth into.
EU-US RELATIONS: RULE-SETTER VS. RULE-TAKER
I CONSIDER THE UNITED STATES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION to be frenemies. Both partners and rivals, Brussels and Washington don’t always have the easiest relationship. But even I have to admit that on a series of thorny digital policymaking issues, the transatlantic relationship is, dare I say it, actually working. There are still some massive problems — U.S. views on European “protectionism,” and European views on U.S. “corporate capture.” But the upcoming EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC) summit at the end of the month offers two glaring examples of how both sides are influencing each other.
First, social media rules. Ever since Republicans took back the U.S. House of Representatives, any form of checks on these platforms has become a no-go area — mostly because these politicians incorrectly believe any restrictions are anathema to the First Amendment. And yet, the U.S. is about to sign up to (nonbinding) commitments at the end of the month that align almost exactly with the EU’s new social media rules, known as the Digital Services Act. In fact, the team implementing that legislation within the 27-country bloc was involved in writing the upcoming TTC communiqué.
“The European Union and the United States consider that online platforms should exercise greater responsibility in ensuring that their services contribute to an online environment that protects, empowers and respects minors,” EU and U.S. officials are expected to say later this month. “We share a common view that data access for researchers is key to help understand systemic risks on online platforms and to advance our understanding of the online ecosystem.” Both those commitments draw almost exclusively from Brussels’ new content rules — and mark a clear sign that Washington is willing to take on some, if not all, of those suggestions.
There’s more. The EU and the U.S. will also unveil (again, nonbinding) principles for “transparent and accountable online platforms” that borrow heavily from Europe’s new social media rulebook. That includes greater protection for kids online and a series of pledges to give outsiders better access to these networks, all in the name of transparency. The goal, according to three EU and U.S. officials, is to announce some form of DSA-lite data-access (voluntary) rules for researchers at the next TTC summit in the U.S. at the end of the year. That would parallel similar, mandatory offerings for these academics that are baked into Europe’s unfolding rules.
But this is not just a one-way street. As part of an extended “Joint Roadmap for Truthworthy AI and Risk Management” (not the catchiest title), U.S. and EU officials will likewise take a page — or many pages — from guidelines recently published by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. The so-called AI Risk Management Framework lays out four specific pathways for governing the emerging technology to both mitigate potential harms and provide space for innovation.
That falls into four buckets of policymaking — and extends to the latest craze of generative AI that will also get a name-check at the transatlantic tech and trade gathering in Northern Sweden on May 30-31. Suggestions include the specific metrics needed to measure so-called trustworthy AI, or pledges to use the tech for good; how best to check that companies are upholding such standards; and other technical specifications that agencies like NIST do very well, and where the EU, for all its policymaking know-how, often falls down due to a lack on in-house expertise within its institutions.
The goal is not to create a one-size-fits-all approach to AI, but to instead offer voluntary measurement tools and risk-management techniques that, while immensely boring, are crucial if the technology can quickly develop, globally, with the necessary checks in place. Think of it as a set of best practices, and not prescriptive regulation. One caveat: It’s still unclear whether the TTC’s AI Roadmap will comply with Europe’s Artificial Intelligence Act and its requirements to clamp down on “harmful AI.” If that isn’t cleared up, then this whole transatlantic bonhomie could, again, be back to square one.
THE ‘CAKE-AND-EAT-IT’ APPROACH TO DIGTAL RULEMAKING
MARK SURMAN, HEAD OF THE MOZILLA FOUNDATION, the nonprofit organization behind the Firefox browser that advocates for responsible technology and regulation, has a message for politicians: Just keep swimming. As policymakers around the world freak out about generative artificial intelligence — and certain regions and countries push ahead with their own tech regulation on everything from privacy to social media to digital competition — the Canadian feels pretty confident that things are moving in the right direction.
“Keep going on the DSA and enforcement. Keep going on GDPR and making enforcement better. Keep going on the AI Act and figuring out how general purpose AI is regulated,” he told me via Zoom from his California headquarters, in reference to the litany of EU digital proposals to police everything from online content to privacy rights to AI. “All this stuff is happening in terms of regulation, exactly at the right time and at an appropriate speed, in my view.”
For Surman, whose public policy colleagues play a central role in how Western civil society has pushed back against Big Tech players’ dominance of parts of the online landscape, it’s only natural that lawmaking will lag behind fast-developing technologies that track progress in months, if not weeks. “Now is the time to go hard on regulation. It’s not dramatically too late. The DSA and DMA are much more mature runs about at how you think about these topics than the GDPR was,” he added in reference to Brussels’ online content and antitrust reboots, known as the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, respectively. GDPR refers to the General Data Protection Regulation, the bloc’s revamped privacy laws that came into force almost five years ago.
His take isn’t that we should be complacent in how new rules are created around technology. Instead, Surman prefers to take a “cake-and-eat-it” approach to policymaking: Let’s use all the existing rules and build out new regulation, too, to capture potential digital downsides that lawmakers have yet to get their heads around. “We either have the right stuff or we’re working on the right stuff,” the Mozilla chief executive said. “There’s a shift in our thinking that isn’t in the (policymaking) that’s already moving. Work around collective rights, collective benefits, collective harms, and how data and AI fit into that is needed, too.”
Unlike other policy wonks, Surman also runs a multibillion-dollar tech business — where he can put his money where his mouth is. And that means Mozilla is now moving from just advocating for so-called trustworthy AI to embedding the principles of fairness, accountability and transparency into how it builds and invests in digital products. The nonprofit has set aside $35 million in venture capital funding for fledgling firms in that sector and has earmarked additional money for in-house research and development to create AI-focused tools that embrace trustworthy AI principles.
“If AI is defining the next era of our digitized work, and we want our values to show up in that we need both a market-based strategy and a movement-based strategy,” Surman said. “Building AI, especially into consumer products, like Firefox, people are doing it really fast and irresponsible way. As we explore the market-based piece of it, there’s a reason why we’re going cautiously. There’s a reason why we’re starting with safety and inclusion-focused technologies and not rushing to the end with some big consumer play.”
Mozilla’s boss acknowledges that the slow-and-steady approach likely means the nonprofit will never compete with OpenAI and Google’s Bard in the generative AI hysteria. His pitch is about building the means to rein in some of the risks created by these new tools — mostly because most businesses aren’t worrying about the downsides to the technology. “It’s not about creating the alternative to GPT7,” he said in reference to OpenAI’s technology. “A lot of the leverage is going to be around the edges and on top of these things at this point, and not actually in trying to be as a main competitor and owning one of the (AI) models.”
BY THE NUMBERS
TWITTER’S POLITICAL PRIORITIES
I’M NOT ONE TO GIVE OUT BUSINESS ADVICE. And with Twitter’s faltering business model, its new chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, has enough on her plate. Yet the policymaking world is my bread and butter, so here are some thorny political questions the former NBCUniversal ad executive needs to get ahead of as lawmakers worldwide ask increasingly difficult question of the Blue Bird.
1. What’s your relationship like with governments? Historically, Twitter has been more willing than others to go to the mattresses with governments over things like censorship and free speech, including multiple lawsuits filed against India’s repeated checks on social media. That approach has now shifted under Elon Musk’s tenure as chief executive, including the blocking of content from opposition leaders in Turkey ahead of last weekend’s nationwide election. At some point, Twitter has to decide: How strongly does it want to defend free speech, and at what cost?
2. Who do I call to talk at Twitter? During last year’s mass layoffs, Musk fired almost all of the company’s public policy executives. That means those long-standing relationships with policymakers worldwide were cut off, almost overnight. In Europe, for instance, European Commission officials don’t know to whom to turn within Twitter to ask about how the company will comply with the bloc’s new social media rules. The tech giant needs to rebuild those bridges fast, and not just in Europe.
3. How are you handling the 2024 election tsunami? Next year, the U.S., the EU, the United Kingdom and India (among others) will all hold elections. Frankly, it’s going to be shitshow of misinformation, political skullduggery and potential foreign interference. Twitter remains woefully underprepared to handle its role in these upcoming votes — and is fast losing political goodwill as an impartial place where people can voice their (often politically heated) opinions. Coming up with a comprehensive global election strategy needs to be a top priority.
WONK OF THE WEEK
THE ANNUAL G7 SUMMIT gets underway on Friday in Hiroshima, Japan — the annual gathering of leaders from the West’s largest democracies. We’re focusing on Taro Kono, Japan’s digital transformation minister, and former foreign affairs and defense minister under the country’s now-deceased former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Tokyo has focused on boosting the free flow of data and pushing Western norms on AI under its G7 presidency (check out the summary of the recent meeting of the country’s digital ministers). Kono, a Georgetown graduate who began his career in the electronics industry in the early 1990s, is spending a lot of his time digitizing his ministry’s work and even boasts his own lifesize robot avatar.
“I asked ChatGPT who Kono Taro is and he came back with the wrong answer,” Kono told Bloomberg earlier this month in reference to the generative AI tool. “So you need to be careful.”
THEY SAID WHAT, NOW?
“Video games attract billions of users all over the world. In such a fast-growing and dynamic industry, it is crucial to protect competition and innovation. Our decision represents an important step in this direction,” said Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s competition chief, when announcing that Brussels had approved Microsoft’s $68 billion takeover of Activision — a deal that has been blocked by British antitrust authorities and faces a separate legal challenge by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
WHAT I’M READING
— Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, explained why regulation was needed for this emerging technology that protects people while also allowing industry to innovate. Read his U.S. Senate testimony here.
— Italy’s competition authority accused Apple of abusing its dominant position in the app market to favor its own services over those of rivals. Read more here.
— Europe’s AI Act is a good first start, but the recent draft from the European Parliament misses the mark on clearly defining what risk management is needed for specific AI use cases, according to Philipp Hacker, a law professor, via LinkedIn.
— Governments from Washington to Brussels to Beijing are increasingly embedding themselves into the technical standard-setting of emerging technologies in ways that bring geopolitics into wonky policy discussions worldwide, claims Tim Ruhlig from the German Council on Foreign Relations.
— U.S. agencies including the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a joint statement on enforcing existing rules that related to AI “automated systems.”
— France’s privacy regulator announced an action plan on AI that includes upholding data protection standards, auditing AI systems for potential harm, and better understanding how the technology affects society. Read more here.
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Maddler
in reply to informapirata ⁂ • • •Infami.
informapirata ⁂ reshared this.
informapirata ⁂
in reply to Maddler • • •Come ricorda Mastrodonato, "La persona aggredita dalle forze dell'ordine a Milano è una transgender straniera. L'Italia ha un problema di profilazione razziale e sessuale da parte della polizia. Se ne parla tanto per gli USA, qui molto meno"
Gert
in reply to informapirata ⁂ • • •Andrea Russo likes this.
reshared this
Gatta Cikova e informapirata ⁂ reshared this.
Gert
in reply to Gert • • •informapirata ⁂
in reply to Gert • • •Gert
in reply to informapirata ⁂ • • •informapirata ⁂
in reply to Gert • • •Gert
in reply to informapirata ⁂ • • •Andrea Russo
Unknown parent • •@El Salvador il contesto? Ma di cosa parli? Conosci per caso una qualche procedura che preveda la percossa ripetuta di una persona seduta e inerme con l'aggiunta di una spruzzata al peperoncino?
@Maddler (2⁸²⁵⁸⁹⁹³³ -1) @informapirata :privacypride:
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informapirata ⁂ e Gatta Cikova reshared this.
Gatta Cikova
Unknown parent • • •@salvadorbs ma infatti anche il manganello su una persona che sta ferma va contestualizzato. Per esempio, l'utilizzo del manganello contro chi lo contestualizza andrebbe rivallutato
@informapirata @maddler
informapirata ⁂ reshared this.
Maddler
Unknown parent • • •Pëtr Arkad'evič Stolypin
in reply to informapirata ⁂ • •❄️ freezr ❄️
Unknown parent • • •informapirata ⁂ reshared this.
informapirata ⁂
Unknown parent • • •@Kurjak @freezr
Risposta breve:
"La persona aggredita dalle forze dell'ordine a Milano è una transgender straniera."
nitter.it/LuigiMastro_/status/…
❄️ freezr ❄️
Unknown parent • • •davgian
in reply to informapirata ⁂ • • •informapirata ⁂
in reply to davgian • • •Maddler
Unknown parent • • •El Salvador
in reply to Andrea Russo • • •strano che non ci sia stata neanche una persona che ha spiegato cosa sia successo prima e motivando la brutalità della polizia, invece di darmi contro per partito preso.
- a quanto risulta, la persona aveva aggredito poco prima gli agenti
- ci sarà un inchiesta per determinare tutto
- io ho solo fatto notare la mancanza del contesto per giudicare al meglio un episodio. Voi avete fatto notare solo che preferite fermarvi a vedere un video di pochi minuti e stop
El Salvador
in reply to El Salvador • • •si critica tanto Twitter e la mania di gestire l'informazione con la pancia invece della testa, ma anche in questa discussione vedo che non è tanto diverso.
Addio e grazie per tutto il pesce.
Scimmia di Mare
in reply to El Salvador • • •informapirata ⁂ reshared this.
informapirata ⁂
Unknown parent • • •@cipper sì, questa dell'AIDS è la carta jolly 🃏 che i picchiatori in divisa raccontano ogni volta che vengono colti in castagna da una persona che rientra nelle "categorie a rischio" degli spot anni '80....
@salvadorbs @russandro @maddler
sjmon
in reply to informapirata ⁂ • • •reshared this
informapirata ⁂ e SparkIT reshared this.
Sandro Beni
in reply to informapirata ⁂ • • •informapirata ⁂ reshared this.
informapirata ⁂
in reply to Sandro Beni • • •Gabu1110
Unknown parent • • •Mai un dubbio che sta feccia sia pericolosa, come il tipo che minaccia d'infettare, e che fanno di tutto per far rispettare un ordine? Allora, chi delinque può tutto. Chi deve far rispettare la legge no.
Ma dove vivete??
informapirata ⁂
in reply to Gabu1110 • • •@Gabu1110 la manganellata in testa è comprensibile solo quando il poliziotto, sotto impellente aggressione, non riesce a calibrare il colpo. Quando viene assestata a un soggetto inerte da parte di un agente che si avvicina puntando l'obiettivo è tentato omicidio.
Perciò prima di dimostrare di non capire una mazza di ordine e di democrazia, almeno fatti consigliare da un amico che ne sappia più di te
@cipper @salvadorbs @russandro @maddler
Gabu1110
in reply to informapirata ⁂ • • •Si faccia aiutare da un amico che ne sa più di lei la prossima volta
informapirata ⁂
in reply to Gabu1110 • • •@Gabu1110 un poliziotto che picchia in testa, un altro che picchia su un fianco scoperto, un altro che si avventa su un avambraccio rivolto in basso e un altro che spruzza vapori urticanti in faccia a un cittadino supino. Si. È un fascio. Un fascio di erba cattiva
@cipper @salvadorbs @russandro @maddler
informapirata ⁂
Unknown parent • • •è stata pestata da 4 poliziotti fascisti. Quindi è feccia. Il sillogismo è fallace, ma dice molto su chi lo formula
@Gabu1110 @cipper @salvadorbs @russandro @maddler
andaiversoilmare 🫂
in reply to informapirata ⁂ • • •informapirata ⁂
Unknown parent • • •@cipper no, guarda... quella al massimo è una aggravante. Ma al fascio medio, basta che una vittima venga presa a manganellate da quattro persone in divisa per risolvere i propri problemi di disfunzione erettile e, ovviamente, per capire immediatamente che quella vittima È feccia. E non è neanche tanto vittima, ma anzi sicuramente è anche un po' colpevole. E pericolosa...
@Dunpiteog @Gabu1110 @salvadorbs @russandro @maddler
informapirata ⁂
Unknown parent • • •@cipper @Dunpiteog @Gabu1110 @salvadorbs @russandro @maddler
Allucinante o... indicativo?
#alluce #indice
Scimmia di Mare
in reply to Gabu1110 • • •@Gabu1110 @cipper @salvadorbs @russandro @maddler vivo e lavoro in una zona abbastanza impegnativa. Nella mia attività ho subito 23 rapine. Ciononostante il video mi fa ribrezzo.
Vedi, quando vidi schiaffeggiare senza motivo, alla Tenenza, il sospettato autore di una delle mie rapine (tutte a mano armata, da coltello a fucile a canne mozze) chiesi - in disparte - all'ufficiale di far smettere la cosa, perché era indecente.
informapirata ⁂ reshared this.
Gabu1110
Unknown parent • • •@cipper @Dunpiteog @salvadorbs @russandro @maddler concordo su una parte.
Molti non sono assolutamente preparati a gestire compiti di polizia, scambiano quel lavoro per quello di un impiegato.
Invece dovrebbero avere nozioni e capacità di affrontare situazioni problematiche come quella che si è presentata a Milano.
informapirata ⁂ reshared this.
Fabio Tavano
Unknown parent • • •