March 12, 2021
A month ago, Caroline Wilson was still popular in China. The UK ambassador’s savvy use of Chinese social media, and her fluent Mandarin, won her more than 13,000 followers on Weibo. But this month, what was an asset became a liability when the Chinese Foreign Ministry reprimanded her over a WeChat post in which she defended critical press coverage of China.
The incident highlights a digital divide. Chinese diplomats have free rein most of the time on Twitter to criticize local governments, as Wilson herself pointed out. But Western diplomats don’t enjoy the same freedom on the Chinese internet.
“5G will certainly be in there.”
– Peter Stuckmann, head of unit at the European Commission in charge of future connectivity systems, speaking about the EU’s upcoming ‘Digital Decade’ targets.
Story of the week: The Commission’s ‘Digital Decade’ objectives for 2030 will be presented on 9 March. We look at what could be in store for next-generation telecommunications.
Podcast: This week, we take a look at what’s in store for the future of 5G in the EU, with a particular focus on recent developments in France.
Don’t miss: We caught up with Gilles de Kerchove, the EU’s Counter-Terrorism Coordinator this week. He’s very keen on pushing for quick adoption of new rules that would allow authorities based in one EU nation to issue order requests to online service providers based in other member states, for access to electronic data to be used in criminal prosecutions, as part of the e-Evidence regulation.