Sign petition: Stop Big Tech’s attack against digital trade rules

The following is from the Washington Fair Trade Coalition:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 6, 2023) — Big Tech has a new plan to derail attempts to protect our privacy and kids’ wellbeing, to thwart civil rights and safeguards on the use of artificial intelligence, and to lock in monopoly abuses hurting workers and small businesses. At this very moment, they’re using their army of lobbyists, money and influence in an attempt to rig trade agreements with dangerous rules behind closed doors.

The good news is, we can still stop them.

TAKE A STAND — Please sign this emergency petition to stop Big Tech’s “digital trade” sneak attack against consumers, working people and a just society.

Civil rights, labor, consumer, faith and other organizations are all pushing back against Big Tech’s attempts to hijack trade deals currently being negotiated. Big Tech lobbyists’ targets include a 13-country U.S.-Asia deal called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and a new pact within the global World Trade Organization. They’re pushing for binding requirements that would undermine government oversight of the tech sector here in the United States and around the globe.

The secretive trade-deal negotiating process works to Big Tech’s advantage. They’re exploiting the privileged access provided to corporate special interests, with roughly 400 official corporate trade advisors granted access, while the public and the press are excluded.

Big Tech lobbyists are demanding so-called “digital trade” rules that in reality are Trojan horse attacks.  These binding rules would:

• Guarantee their ability to ship, process and store people’s personal data around the global without regard to consumer privacy and data security standards;

• Evade scrutiny of and accountability for artificial intelligence (AI) that expands racial discrimination, gender discrimination, labor rights violations and other abuses;

• Accelerate the offshoring of data-driven service sector jobs to low-wage countries with atrocious human rights records; and

• Gut anti-trust enforcement and other competition policies that end the abuses of tech monopolies.

Please sign this joint petition calling on trade negotiators to use a transparent negotiating process and to oppose Big Tech-favored “digital trade” rules that undermine consumer privacy, data security, AI accountability, algorithmic transparency, worker rights, and anti-monopoly policies.