On March 8, 2024, the DTA together with its member organisation, Engage Media, hosted a series of talks in Jakarta, Indonesia. The event sought to provide an introduction to digital trade-related issues to Indonesian consumer and digital rights groups, enabling them to advocate for a rights-based agenda in their engagements with local government officials.

The first talk of the day led by Rishab Bailey, Research Director of the DTA, focused on the intersection of digital rights and digital trade. Explaining how digital rights were likely to be affected by international trade negotiations, Rishab urged the groups present to get involved by advocating for pro-consumer and rights-based positions among local authorities involved in negotiations at the IPEF, theWTO, and elsewhere. In particular, he noted that opposing the deregulatory agenda of Big Tech companies was vital to ensure that people’s rights could be protected in the digital ecosystem.

This was followed by a talk on data governance and the current debates around cross-border data flows. Emphasizing the importance of governments retaining the ability to regulate data flows, Rishab argued that signing up to free flow of data provisions — as seen in a number of recent trade agreements — only benefits Big Tech companies and could limit the ability of governments to protect their people’s rights, including that of privacy. Explaining the arguments for and against restricting data flows, Rishab emphasized that giving up the sovereign ability to regulate the digital ecosystem was not in the interests of domestic users and consumers.

The third talk, by Associate Professor Jeanne Huang from Sydney University, explained how China was seeking to enhance the commercial potential of data by implementing a new data property rights system in the country. She explained how this was likely to affect China’s position at international trade negotiations, given that China is actively seeking to develop a vibrant data market.

The final talk, by Pablo Kramcsak, PhD researcher from Vrije Universiteit Brussels, focused on how the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, which is said to represent a new type of trade agreement to facilitate digital trade, did not deliver on its lofty promises. Rather than create a digital ecosystem that foregrounded people’s rights, the agreement was largely a rebranding of the older Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which contained numerous provisions that placed corporate interests over rights such as privacy.