The US is mobilizing against Europe's efforts to protect its citizens from big artificial intelligence companies. Instructions conveyed in a State Department telegram
President Donald Trump's administration has ordered US diplomats to lobby against attempts to regulate how US technology companies handle the data of foreign citizens, saying in an internal diplomatic cable seen by Reuters that such moves could disrupt services related to artificial intelligence.
Experts consulted by Reuters say the move indicates the Trump administration is returning to a tougher approach as some countries seek to impose limits on how Silicon Valley companies process and store their citizens' personal information. These initiatives are often described as “data sovereignty” or “data localization”.
The State Department telegram, dated Feb. 18 and signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said such laws would “disrupt global data flows, increase cybersecurity costs and risks, limit Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud services, and expand government control in ways that may undermine civil liberties and facilitate censorship.”
The telegram says the Trump administration is promoting “a firmer international data policy” and that diplomats should “counter unnecessarily burdensome regulations like data location warrants.”
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
The US move seems to be aimed primarily at Europe
Data sovereignty initiatives have gained momentum, particularly in Europe, amid rising tensions between the United States and the European Union over Washington's protectionist trade policies and the Trump Administration's support for far-right political parties on the continent.
The dominance of US artificial intelligence companies, many of which rely on massive volumes of personal data to train their models, has heightened European concerns about online surveillance and privacy. Officials across the continent have also stepped up pressure on US social media giants.
Bert Hubert, a Dutch cloud computing expert and former member of the council that regulates Dutch intelligence services, told Reuters that Europe's growing reluctance towards US technology companies could prompt Washington to take a more aggressive approach.
“While the previous administration tried to attract European customers, the current one is asking Europeans to ignore their own data protection regulations, which could make it difficult for American companies to operate,” the expert says.
EU legislation, explicitly cited in the State Department telegram
Data sovereignty laws vary in scope. Some impose rules on where information is kept, requiring that data collected from a particular country be stored only within that country. Others set restrictions on how data is shared, limiting its distribution to foreign companies.
For example, the European Union's 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposed restrictions on the transfer of Europeans' data outside the EU and led to a series of stinging fines levied on US tech firms.
Rubio's telegram cited the GDPR as an example of a rule that imposed “unnecessarily burdensome restrictions on data processing and requirements on cross-border data flows.”
The document also says China is “combining attractive technology infrastructure projects with restrictive data policies that expand its global influence and access to international data for surveillance and strategic advantage.”
Telegram did not provide many other details, but China has in recent years tightened regulations on how its companies store and transfer user data.
China's embassy in Washington said it was not aware of the telegram, but that Beijing “has always attached great importance to cyber security and data security.” The European Commission office in Washington did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.
State Department telegram calls for 'action'
The telegram, whose title it described as a “request for action”, asked US diplomats to follow the development of proposals to restrict cross-border data flows and provided talking points in support of the “Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules Forum”, a group established in 2022 by the United States, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Japan and other states “to support the free flow of data and the effective protection of data and privacy globally”.
The forum did not respond to requests for comment.
Telegram is the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at countering European regulation of the digital sphere.
Last year, Rubio asked diplomats to rally opposition to the EU's Digital Services Act, which aims to make the internet safer by forcing major social media companies to remove illegal content, such as extremist material or child sexual abuse.
Last week, Reuters reported that the United States planned to launch an online portal intended to help Europeans and others circumvent what the White House considers “censorship” of material, including speech that some EU states consider to be hate speech or terrorist propaganda.
