Reps. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) launched the Digital Trade Caucus Monday, which aims to protect cross-border digital trade from government protectionism.
“Trade has gone digital and protectionist policies don’t work in an internet-age,” DelBene said in a statement.
“We need continued American leadership in the digital economy and for that to happen our laws need to be up to date with the way the world works.”
{mosads}Internationally, many nations have implemented national security platforms that are functionally similar to protectionist trade practices. In China and other countries, cloud service providers are required to have servers containing all data of local citizens, to be used for surveillance measures. So-called data localization keeps files within their jurisdictions and forces companies to maintain files they might otherwise delete.
The European Union, which guarantees its citizens privacy, has created evolving rules governing the cross-border flow of information to maintain privacy standards.
Both impact U.S.-based cloud services.
The Digital Trade Caucus will also advocate for unfiltered speech on social media networks.