US Steps Up Diplomatic Pressure on Countries That Limit Cross-Border Data Flows

The cable, dated February 18^th and signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said those efforts would “disrupt global data flows, increase costs and cybersecurity risks, limit Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud services, and expand government control in ways that can undermine civil liberties and enable censorship.” It added, per Reuters, that the administration is pursuing “a more assertive international data policy” and that diplomats should “counter unnecessarily burdensome regulations, such as data localization mandates.”

The directive cited the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as an example of a rule that levies “unnecessarily burdensome data processing restrictions and cross-border data flow requirements.” GDPR restricts the transfer of EU citizens’ data to countries outside of Europe, including the U.S., and has triggered substantial fines on U.S. technology companies, angering Washington.

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The cable also claimed China is “bundling enticing technology infrastructure projects with restrictive data policies that expand its global influence and access to international data for surveillance and strategic leverage.”

The Chinese Embassy in Washington told Reuters it was not familiar with the cable but that Beijing “has always attached great importance to cybersecurity and data security.” The European Commission’s office in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

The latest directive is not the first time the Trump administration has sought to put diplomatic pressure on other countries to ease off tech regulations. Last August, the State Department instructed diplomats to lobby for changes to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). But experts Reuters spoke with said the new missive signals the White House is reverting to a more confrontational approach to how other countries seek to limit how U.S. companies handle their citizens’ data.

Former member of a Dutch regulatory authority board Bert Hubert said Europe’s increasing wariness of America’s tech companies may be spurring Washington to take a more aggressive tack.

“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,” he told Reuters.

The new diplomatic cable also was dated two days before the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs—his signature economic and foreign policy strategy—which could further fuel a renewed confrontational approach. Immediately following the Court’s ruling Trump announced a new 15% global tariff citing different, albeit still controversial, legal authority and warned in a social media post he could do “absolutely ‘terrible’ things” to other countries.

Specifically, the cable ordered U.S. diplomats to track the development of proposals to restrict cross-border data flows and provided talking points for the upcoming Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules Forum, a U.S.-led initiative launched in 2022 to promote the “free flow of data and effective data protection and privacy globally,” according to its mission statement.