Open the borders, Belarus coalition troubles, and Thierry on TikTok
September 1, 2020
Hello! Happy September. This is a brief Savvy today (slow news day, busy work day) touching on the EU’s efforts to fight Covid-19 together and the evolving situation in Belarus. If you have any feedback or suggestions for Savvy, DM me on Twitter @EAWhatcott.
Europe Update
Covid-19: Border woes
The situation: The German Presidency of the European Council has prioritized homogenizing member states’ pandemic border policies, in a bid to avoid the rough patchwork of rules and closures that characterized the early days of the pandemic. In a recent paper for EU ambassadors, the German presidency underlined that while countries reserve the right to unilaterally impose measures as they see fit, more coordination was needed to preserve the Schengen free-movement zone and to ease economic cooperation.
Meanwhile, in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban initially enacted a blanket ban on travelers to the country—and later lifted the ban for select neighbors. The EU criticized the move as discriminatory and urged Hungary to treat all travelers equally.
Why this matters: With millions of students returning to school and cases rising alarmingly in many countries, Europe is still struggling to rein in the pandemic and avoid the chaotic period back in March with uncontrollably rising cases, deaths, and inter-regional disputes. Alignment on borders is one of many issues that the EU needs to iron out among its members in order to ensure continued coordination—and perhaps the future of the EU itself.
Belarus: Tikhanovskaya makes herself heard
The situation: As the anti-government protests continue in Belarus, cracks are starting to show between the opposition leaders, which to this point have remained remarkably aligned. Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, currently living in exile in Lithuania after the disputed election, criticized two other opposition politicians for forming a new political party. Tikhanovskaya argued that she wanted her movement to remain untainted by one party’s political dominance. She also told POLITICO in an interview that she sees herself as a temporary leader to help ensure that Belarus gets fair elections, not a new president who will take charge of the country.
Some context: Tikhanovskaya is new to politics, only entering the presidential race when her husband was jailed and disqualified from running. While the former schoolteacher is popular, Tikhanovskaya’s success may have less to do with her own charismatic leadership than an upswell of opposition against Lukashenko’s regime—or at least, her comments lead Savvy to think she might see it that way. The New York Times has an interesting look into Tikhanovskaya’s background before the election that changed her life and her country.
Going forward: Tikhanovskaya is set to speak before the UN Security Council on Friday after an invitation from Estonia. The embattled President Lukashenko seems to have little inclination to letting Tikhanovskaya take over or of holding new elections, but the EU is developing sanctions against his regime for the fraudulent election and subsequent crackdown on dissent. Watch this space for developments in the coming weeks and months as both the regime and the protestors see who blinks first.
Tech News
U.S.-China Tech War
Thierry Breton, the Internal Market Commissioner for the EU, said in an interview with POLITICO that he sees where the Trump Administration is coming from on TikTok and wants European data to be stored on European servers. The EU official does not necessarily support a ban like the Trump Administration’s divestment order, but data sovereignty has long been a pressing concern for both Commissioner Breton and the rest of the EU leadership. However, it is not only Chinese but also U.S. data practices that concern the EU, leading to calls for greater control of EU citizens’ data overall.
Content regulation
Facebook has joined Google in condemning a new Australian law aiming to force the tech companies to compensate news companies for news content that appears on the giants’ platforms. Facebook warned that it might prevent users from sharing or accessing news if the law passed due to stricter liability and compensation measures in the bill. Champions of the draft law argue that Facebook and Google are choking out local media outlets and need to support the services they risk supplanting; Facebook and Google argue that the measures unfairly target their platforms and would force the firms to restrict their services to Australian users.
Disinformation
Facebook has commissioned a study to evaluate the impact of Facebook and Instagram in the 2020 election, pulling in 17 outside academics to conduct experiments on different News Feed formulations. On the one hand, it’s good that Facebook is taking its role in the election seriously; on the other hand, the study will likely need strict outside scrutiny to ensure that it is objective. Hopefully, this is only the first of many such studies.