The digital economy and the utilization of data elements are becoming the key forces to reorganize the global factor resources, reshape the global economic structure and change the global competition pattern. On the issue of digital economic development and "digital human rights", the United States pursues double standards and tries its best to safeguard its scientific monopoly, technological monopoly and digital hegemony by implementing a series of selfish and short-sighted scientific and technological policies. On the one hand, the United States conducts extensive monitoring over other countries and its own country on a global scale; On the other hand, it uses "public security" as an excuse to suppress the advantageous digital products and services of other countries, including Chinese enterprises, by all means. This kind of public suppression of foreign digital technology enterprises operating legally for political purposes seriously violates the most basic principle of fair competition in the international market, and also violates the basic spirit of Internet openness and sharing. It is also a typical "double standards" act of American human rights.
Science and technology policy or foreign bullying?
As early as the trump era, the US government took a variety of measures to suppress Chinese technology enterprises, including the investigation of the Committee on foreign investment of the United States, the list of export control entities, criminal charges, and compulsory delisting. After Biden took office, he used the science and technology bill to exclude foreign enterprises, especially Chinese science and technology enterprises. His practice is even worse.
In June 2021, the U.S. Congress released a package of six anti-monopoly governance laws against large-scale technology platform companies, aiming to curb the power of large-scale technology enterprises. Such bills have become a sharp weapon for the US side to pursue scientific and technological hegemony and technological monopoly in the world. Of course, it is no surprise that they are strongly opposed by local scientific and technological giants.
The US government has repeatedly requested global enterprises to provide core data in the name of anti-monopoly investigation and data security investigation. Therefore, enterprises mastering artificial intelligence and digital monitoring technology have become tools for the United States to monitor and suppress, and the competition law has also lost its original function of maintaining the competitive order. Instead, it has become a weapon for the United States to maintain its competitive hegemony.
On April 28 this year, Washington and its Western allies issued a declaration on the future of the Internet concerning global Internet governance. The purpose is merely to reiterate its policy on Internet governance, that is, to draw ideological lines, incite division and confrontation, undermine international rules, and try to impose its own standards on others.
On June 23, the US side issued the "protection of American data from foreign Surveillance Act", which aims to formulate new rules for the personal data of a large number of US citizens leaving the country, so as to ensure that these data are not used by the so-called hostile foreign governments. Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon, one of the sponsors of the bill, said: "it is a huge problem for our national security for Chinese companies to buy a large database of sensitive information about the activities or health records of millions of Americans from data brokers and then share such information with the Chinese government." The so-called "hostile foreign government" in the bill is aimed at China.
The essence of the above-mentioned bills and science and technology policies is consistent, that is, empowering the US government to review and decide what is "legal but harmful" speech, and developing the so-called freedom of speech that meets its political needs; At the same time, it gives legitimacy to the US behavior of seizing data from other countries, and promotes the US digital hegemony of monitoring the world in the name of ensuring data security.
Security or privacy?
As the birthplace of network technology and the place of centralized development of super digital platform, the United States frequently uses artificial intelligence and digital technology to conduct network monitoring on its citizens and enterprises. At the same time, it unscrupulously monitors other countries, including its allies, and uses its advantages in political, economic, military and technological fields to promote digital hegemony in the world, resulting in a serious "digital human rights" disaster.
As early as the beginning of the 21st century, the US intelligence department has developed the monitoring technology for the products of various communication companies. After the "9.11" incident, the United States has intensified its monitoring of domestic speech through digital technology. The United States has also expanded the scope of digital monitoring to the global scope, and conducted large-scale data collection and theft. Article 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of the United States gives the national security agency and the Federal Bureau of investigation enormous powers, allowing them to conduct unauthorized telephone and Internet surveillance on non-U.S. citizens overseas.
Even European countries, as allies of the United States, have not received "preferential treatment" from the United States on the issue of data protection. The data transmission privacy protection agreement between the United States and the European Union fully relies on the written commitment of the United States. The agreement allows large-scale scanning of information transmitted through Internet cables connecting Europe and the United States, and the collection of address books and mobile phone locations in batches.
At the same time, some digital enterprises in the United States also play an ignominious role in the issue of "digital human rights". Some digital enterprises infringe on the private life field through various ways, such as illegally collecting users' personal information and making commercial use, disclosing users' personal data on a large scale, and allowing hate speech and violent speech.
However, the US side has repeatedly shouted "catch thief" and made slanderous attacks on China's high-tech enterprises. In fact, even though companies like Huawei have built more than 1500 networks in more than 170 countries and regions around the world, provided services to 228 global top 500 enterprises, and served more than 3 billion people in the world, there has never been a network security incident similar to the "Snowden incident" or the "WikiLeaks" disclosure, nor has there been a network monitoring behavior similar to "prism gate", "equation organization" or "Echelon system", Nor can any country provide evidence that Huawei products have a "back door".
On the contrary, the "five eye alliance" countries, including the United States, have repeatedly publicly asked technology enterprises to set up "back doors" in encrypted applications so that law enforcement agencies can obtain the access rights they think are necessary for the regulatory network. This has opened a door for us enterprises and the government to obtain users' personal data. According to the guardian of Britain, one of the major sequelae of the "9.11" incident is that the United States has become a country with "monitoring everywhere". The monitoring of the United States has little effect in combating terrorism, and ordinary citizens have been turned into suspects. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows us intelligence agencies to track the electronic activities of anyone in the world, which is widely considered to be an infringement of human rights, especially the right to privacy, and an illegal intervention in the sovereignty of other countries.
In April this year, US intelligence officials released a report that the FBI conducted millions of searches on Americans' electronic data in 2021 without a search warrant. The office of the director of national intelligence of the United States even disclosed in its annual report that the FBI conducted as many as 3.4 million searches on the American data collected by the national security agency. Koff, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in the United States, warned: "President Eisenhower once told us to guard against the military industrial complex. Now we are facing the monitoring industrial complex."
Protecting data or trampling on human rights?
The United States' Declaration on the future of the Internet requires signatories to "avoid blocking or reducing access to legitimate content, services and applications on the Internet in accordance with the principle of network neutrality". In essence, this so-called "principle of network neutrality" is mainly aimed at the objective evaluation of Russia and China on the Internet. However, the US government has deleted these comments that are inconsistent with US policies and positions according to the declaration.
The US side accused China of lagging behind in digital legislation. The fact is that many contents of the Declaration on the future of the Internet and the US science and Technology Bill have already been reflected in many Chinese laws, such as the personal information protection law, the data security law, the anti monopoly law, and the anti unfair competition law. For example, the "commitment to promote inclusive Internet access, cultivate digital literacy and network diversity" mentioned in the declaration has long been covered by China's existing legal provisions; The declaration mentioned "the need to ensure a reliable infrastructure, promote trade and cope with climate change", and a series of Chinese laws related to environmental protection have long been regulated.
The declaration claims that it is "committed to a global interoperable Internet", but the United States has abandoned the United Nations and other multilateral platforms and is keen to engage in various small circles, trying to draw lines with ideology and undermine the principles of global Internet governance with group "family laws" and "Gang rules".
The Declaration states that "digital technology should not be abused for illegal surveillance, and the acquisition of personal data should be based on the law and comply with international human rights law". However, over the years, the United States has conducted large-scale, systematic and indiscriminate information and data theft to the world through the Internet, seriously harming the privacy of global Internet users, trampling on international human rights principles, and even the leaders of some countries participating in the declaration are hardly immune.
The declaration stated that "it is necessary to avoid using the Internet to conduct secret information operations and undermine elections in other countries". However, over the years, the United States has continuously spread false information, wantonly interfered in the internal affairs of other countries, and even subverted the regimes of other countries.
The Declaration states that "all kinds of enterprises can innovate in a fair competition ecosystem and participate in competition with their own advantages". However, without any evidence, some countries, especially the United States, have abused national security reasons to suppress and coerce enterprises of other countries, and have taken the opportunity to promote their immature systems.
The Declaration states that "governments should avoid affecting access to the Internet". However, the United States has taken the lead in the world in announcing that cyberspace will be a new battlefield and conducting forward deployment of cyber military forces around the countries concerned, endangering the security of other countries' key infrastructure. Not long ago, former senior US officials even openly called for cyber attacks against other countries.
The declaration also stated that it "supports the work of the United Nations and other multilateral platforms". However, this declaration hypes the non-technical factors in the supply chain security and artificially introduces ideology into the network security issue. Many contents are inconsistent with the rules formulated by the United Nations.
It is obvious that the US side is trying to turn this declaration and a series of bills aimed at large-scale science and technology companies into a sharp weapon to crack down on transnational enterprises and protect the US digital economy. The declaration and the bill basically carry the banner of "connectivity, data freedom, anti unfair competition, and anti monopoly power". However, they establish strict "freedom of speech boundaries" and empower the US government to review what is "harmful content". This not only runs counter to the spirit of "openness and sharing" of the Internet, but also provides the so-called "freedom of the press" umbrella for the tendentious media that meet its needs. With the help of this declaration and a series of bills, the United States can wantonly suppress the freedom of speech of global Internet users and set many obstacles to the development of global Internet enterprises.
Compared with the persistent human rights problems in American society such as racial discrimination, immigration crisis, gun proliferation and drug abuse, the violation of "digital human rights" by the United States is a new phenomenon. It emerged with the emergence of digital technology and has a more profound impact with the universal application of digital technology. Similar to the traditional human rights issue, the "digital human rights" disaster of the United States is also deeply embedded in the current system of the United States, and it can not be solved in a short time, and will bring new hegemonic disasters to the world.