Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-23-2025

Abstract

In response to widespread foreign surveillance and growing geopolitical distrust, governments are erecting a national security internet. Pioneered by China, national firewalls have gone global. But where firewalls sought to keep information out, they now seek to keep data in. Governments keen to avoid their citizens’ data from falling into foreign hands demand not only that personal data be stored on local servers, but also require that it be stored on local servers by local companies—what this Article calls “data localization squared.” Enforcing this demand requires a new mechanism of transnational control: immunity from foreign jurisdiction—a concept previously unexplored in legal scholarship. AI systems, too, now need licenses for export. We are witnessing the creation of Digital Berlin Walls, complete with Checkpoint Charlies to permit border crossings.

The ascent of digital border controls in the name of national security treats a domain of speech and commerce according to the rules of war. This Article traces this turn through six case studies: TikTok, the U.S. “rip and replace” program, the Chinese “Delete America” program, Microsoft 365, connected cars, and AI models. The TikTok saga is but the visible edge of a broad reconfiguration of international economic relations largely occurring through obscure administrative processes. Existing scholarship has recognized various aspects of this national security turn; this article weaves together regulatory moves from TikTok to cars, from China to the United States, to identify a paradigm shift in digital regulation.

The Article argues that the national security internet will come at a steep price, disrupting trade and investment, reducing competition, inviting retaliation, increasing government control over speech, and undermining efforts to stem climate change and promote development, while offering easily circumvented protection against foreign surveillance. The Article offers a typology of corporate strategies to satisfy national security demands and assesses their shortcomings. The Article proposes reforms that constrain foreign surveillance in order to protect both civil rights and national security.

Publication Citation

114 Geo. L.J. (forthcoming 2025).

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