The Trump administration has unleashed a diplomatic offensive to dismantle international regulations targeting how American technology giants handle foreign data.
Signaling a more contentious data-first foreign policy, U.S. diplomats have been ordered to lobby against foreign data sovereignty laws that Washington claims threaten the future of artificial intelligence (AI).
The administration is pushing for a “more assertive international data policy,” according to an internal State Department cable Feb. 18, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The document, characterized as an “action request,” instructs diplomats to counter what it describes as “unnecessarily burdensome” regulations, specifically the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The dispute centers on data localization mandates, rules that require companies to store and process a citizen’s personal information within their own national borders. While countries in Europe and elsewhere argue these laws protect privacy and national security, the U.S. cable argues they do the opposite.
Secretary Rubio warned that such restrictions could disrupt global data flows and increase operational costs for U.S. firms, stifle AI development and cloud services by limiting the massive data pools required to train large-scale models and heighten cybersecurity risks and enable foreign government censorship.
“Where the previous administration attempted to woo European customers, the current one is demanding that Europeans disregard their own data privacy regulations that could hinder American business,” said Bert Hubert, a Dutch cloud computing expert and former regulatory board member, in comments to Reuters, which exclusively reported on the State document.
As U.S. AI companies continue to dominate the global market, the friction between Washington’s pro-growth agenda and Europe’s privacy-centric sovereignty movement is reaching a boiling point.
The administration’s stance is not merely a defense of Silicon Valley’s bottom line but a strategic move in a larger geopolitical contest. The cable explicitly flagged China’s efforts to export “restrictive data policies” alongside its infrastructure projects to expand global surveillance and strategic leverage.
In response, U.S. diplomats are being tasked with promoting the Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules Forum, a 2022 initiative involving Canada, Japan, and Australia aimed at maintaining the free flow of data.
The memo is the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to push back against European digital oversight. Last year, the U.S. lobbied against the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), and more recently, reports emerged of a U.S.-backed online portal designed to help users bypass European content moderation and censorship.
“Recently, member states have been pushing to limit reliance on U.S.-based technology service providers, largely due to concerns regarding espionage, support for fringe political parties or policies (e.g. Palantir), and as part of broader trade-related controversies,” data privacy expert Austin Chambers said in an email. “Notably, the U.S.’s push to oppose restrictions on international transfers coincides with the U.S.’s own push to limit data transfers to countries that the U.S. considers to be adversaries, notably China.”
