San Francisco – The Biden administration is developing the concept of “digital solidarity” to help partners and allies use technology responsibly and support economic growth in developing countries, according to a U.S. State Department strategy document released on Monday. He stated that he aims to direct cyber diplomacy centered on the United States.
The long-awaited strategy for how the United States will pursue its digital diplomacy goals reiterates the U.S. government's commitment to an open and interoperable Internet, but it also It comes at a time when the idea is under greater threat than ever before. The law aims to force ByteDance to exit TikTok.
Nevertheless, U.S. officials said Monday's strategy document was designed to create a global coalition to crack down on malicious activity online, effectively manage digital technologies and promote economic development. He said he is providing a blueprint.
In remarks at the RSA conference in San Francisco, Secretary of State Antony Blinken described digital solidarity as the document's “North Star.” Blinken said that “'moving fast and breaking things' is literally the opposite of what we're trying to do at the State Department,” but that technology diplomacy promotes economic development and protects other countries' cyber security. He said this is key to supporting the response to attacks and leveraging technological innovation to drive economic development. Tackling difficult problems like climate change.
Blinken cited the U.S. response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, when the U.S. government and technology companies worked together to provide technical assistance to the Kiev government, as an example of how the U.S. could be more sensitive in its technology diplomacy.
“This is digital solidarity in action, and it's the kind of collaboration that we want to expand and apply around the world,” Blinken said.
Monday's strategy lays out four “areas of action” for U.S. diplomats to pursue. The document calls on the Department of State to promote and maintain an open, inclusive, and secure digital ecosystem. Coordinate technology governance work with partners in a manner that respects human rights. Encouraging responsible national behavior online, including thwarting cyber-attacks against critical infrastructure. Improve cybersecurity and technology policy capabilities in partner countries.
Although the strategy breaks no new ground and largely repeats existing U.S. policy, Nate Fick, the State Department's top cyber diplomat, told reporters in San Francisco that the strategy He said he offers a positive vision of what things will look like. Authoritarian states are increasing censorship of their domestic webs, and European countries are seeking to control data flows to take back their technology ecosystems from Chinese and American companies.
“It's our duty to offer attractive options,” Fick said.
While open internet advocates have described the move to force a sale of TikTok as an abandonment of America's open internet commitments, Fick said TikTok poses a “general” national security threat. He claimed that.
“Determining which platforms can and cannot be used in a free and open society is not a slippery slope,” he said.
To advance America's positive vision for the modern internet, this 54-page document provides a long to-do list of thorny foreign policy issues with no clear solutions in sight.
Among its goals is the development of a new international treaty on cybercrime. U.S. officials are sparring with Russian and Chinese diplomats over the issue at the United Nations, where Kremlin diplomats have issued a broad cybercrime treaty that experts warn will seriously undermine online rights. We are seeking the approval of the
The document calls on U.S. diplomats to increase their work in international standards bodies and reinvigorate their work at the International Telecommunication Union, one of the major standards bodies. US diplomats have been directed to pursue “more action-oriented discussions at the United Nations” to promote responsible national behavior online and improve cyber capabilities.
The document also urges U.S. diplomats to encourage the free flow of data and an open internet, countering the growing acceptance of “a narrative of digital sovereignty and protectionism” by many U.S. partners. I am asking you to do so. This includes a proposal by the European Union to certify the cybersecurity of cloud computing providers, a proposal that has drawn fierce criticism from some observers in the United States and the U.S. technology industry.
Such conflicts represent tensions in the new strategic document. Around the world, governments are increasingly seeking greater control over all forms of technology – whether it's the data collected by online platforms or the supply chain for critical chips – and this is driven by an emphasis on an open internet. often contradicts U.S. history. , American technology companies provide its essential components.
China's growing technological influence is challenging that model, and Monday's strategy document is perhaps best understood as summarizing U.S. policy to counter Chinese influence on technology and public policy issues. You can do it. As 5G cellular technology has been rolled out over the past decade, Chinese companies have led its implementation, and Blinken said Monday that the experience will inform the State Department's efforts to accelerate companies' efforts to tackle the open web. He said there was.
“Our experience with 5G teaches us that we cannot become complacent and allow strategic competitors to dominate the technology that forms the backbone of the global economy and determines where and how information flows,” Blinken said. I learned.''
