By Nick Dearden – GlobalJusticeNow:
A group of mostly rich countries used the World Economic Forum in Davos
to call for negotiations on digital trade. This is ‘next big thing’ in
trade talks: trying to create global rules to govern rapidly increasing
online trade and accompanying flows of data (the so-called ‘oil’ of the
new economy).
The massive rise in new technologies and online communications is
transforming the world economy. And of course, it’s true that new
technology carries with it the power to transform many people’s lives,
to help our efforts to wipe out poverty, deliver healthcare and
education for all, and halt environmental destruction.
But, in the wrong hands, this technology can also do precisely the
opposite. What’s being dubbed the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ at
Davos is energising global corporations, as they look for new ways to
harness our data, cut their costs and increasingly monopolise global
trade. To create a set of rules which actually gives these big tech
companies – from Facebook, Amazon and Google to new platforms like Uber
and AirBnB – permanent power over these new technologies, anywhere in
the world, would be a disaster.
