Digital Empires

Abstract Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology examines the ideological origins, societal implications, and the relative global influence of three contrasting regulatory approaches toward the digital economy: the American market-driven regulatory model, the Chinese state-driven regulatory model, and the European rights-driven regulatory model. These three models reflect different theories about the relationship between markets, the state, and individual and collective rights. They also frequently collide in an international domain, leading to a contested battle over the present and future ethos of the digital economy. The book discusses how governments and tech companies navigate these inevitable conflicts that arise when these contrasting regulatory approaches collide in the international domain, ultimately asking which digital empire will prevail in their mutual contest for global influence. These regulatory conflicts take place at the moment of time when digital societies are at an inflection point. The cascade of digital regulation that is now being drafted around the world will be crucial in shaping the digital economy and digital society for years and decades to come. Governments, technology companies, and digital citizens are making important choices that will shape the future ethos of the digital society and define the soul of the digital economy. This book lays bare the choices we face as societies and individuals, explain the forces that shape those choices, and spell out the stakes involved in making those choices.