Helps to create companies, brands and policy.
A new federal government is emerging in Germany – but what does this mean for the financial sector? Regulation, digitalisation, competitiveness: politics has a major influence on how the market develops.
In the latest Talk between the Towers, I talked to Dirk about the industry’s most important demands on the new government. What course must be set now to promote innovation and advance Germany as a financial centre.
In mid-November 2024, I was invited by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom to take part in two workshops in Hanoi as part of the rule of law dialog between Vietnam and Germany.
Our discussions revolved around key topics of the digital space such as fundamental and property rights, digital assets and intellectual property. The dialog we had with academics, publishers, authors, entrepreneurs and government representatives on the balance between freedom of expression and copyright was particularly exciting.
I always enjoy discussing the order of the digital world. With this occasion and format, however, it was a very special and valuable opportunity to gain insights into the perspectives and challenges of both countries. Once again, it was striking that the conflicts of (digital) coexistence are quite similar in Vietnam, Germany and across the world.
Many thanks to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Thekla Ebbert and Vanessa Steinmetz for the invitation and the opportunity to be part of the Rule of Law Dialogue.
I have been invited by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and the European Leadership Network (ELNET) to join Karl-Heinz Paqué, Carsten Ovens, Daniela Oliel 🎗️, Dr. Sophie Chung and Britta Sophie Weck next week to talk about Israel as a startup nation and what Berlin and Germany can learn from Israel.
The event will be hosted at Betahaus on the 15th of October at 6.30 pm. Participation is free. Registration needed.
In October, I was invited by Sergey Lagodinskyto discuss the geopolitical dimension and effects of technological competition with Dr. Janka Oertel and Dr. Dimitrios Argirakos at the Europa Haus in Berlin. Even in the preliminary discussion, the panelists quickly agreed on what has been lacking in Europe in recent years. In recent years, Europe and Germany have rested too much on their own (economic) dominance in the tailwind of US and US-influenced rule-based globalization and must now enter the competition more confidently.
In my contributions, I have repeatedly emphasized that regulation alone will not take us forward. The paper-based financial system in particular will lose influence in the competition between systems in the long term and the new financial world will be increasingly determined by code. If Europe wants to maintain its position as an economic power, it needs innovation and we must offer the world a reliable financial infrastructure that is based on the rule of law and, above all, open.
The digital age is not determined by legislators, but by the code that is written and used.
Did you know that RT is the second most shared Spanish-language “information source”?
In my guest commentary for the FNF EU I identify a Propaganda Dilemma for democracies. While authoritarian states brazenly spent money to spread their false narratives at home and abroad, our values of free press and media make it almost impossible to match the messaging or deal with the lies imprinted on our open societies. I´ve suggested four steps the West should take to counterattack the Russian disinformation ecosystem.
You can read the article for free here.
Auf Einladung der Freidrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit und Christoph Giesa durfte ich im März über die Kryptonutzung Weltweit sprechen und mit einigen Urban Legends rund um das Thema Krypto aufräumen.
Ihr könnt das Gespräch kostenlos auf YouTube anschauen.
Wieso gibt es Bitcoins, was ist eine Blockchain und brauchen wir einen digitalen Euro?
Gemeinsam mit Sven Hilgers habe ich für die Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit ein Papier zu digitalen Währungen und der Zukunft unseres Geld verfasst. Wir zeichnen im Papier die Entwicklung rund um Bitcoin der letzten Jahre nach und skizzieren dabei die Entstehung der verschiedenen digitalen Währung in vier Wellen. Das Papier soll als Informationsgrundlage für Entscheider dienen und die Grundlage für die weitere Diskussion über den digitalen Euro und die Regulierung von Kryptowährungen bilden.
Das Papier könnt ihr hier kostenlose runterladen.
Last week the political parties that plan to form the new German Government presented their coalition agreement and their governmental agenda for the next four years. Over the weekend, I looked into the deal of the “Traffic light coalition” and tried to find out if the coalitions’ “Dare More Progress” promise, a slogan of their commitment to progressive governing, holds up when it comes to digital and technology policy. Let see where the coalition stands on civil rights, digital platforms and artificial intelligence.
After roughly two horrible decades for digital civil rights, it is instantly noticeable that the conservative party, who prevented any progress for online rights, is not a part of the agreement. As a result, some long required positive adjustments can be expected. First and foremost, the coalition expressed their full support for the individual right to encryption and wants to preserve the possibility to use online services anonymously and pseudonymously. This is a major step away from the surveillance focused agenda of the last governments and alone would be enough reason to celebrate, but the coalition is just getting started.
The coalition also specifically objects to any surveillance or identification duties when it comes to private communication and calls for the universal use of end-to-end-encryption, instead of calling to break it. And if all that wouldn’t be enough, the coalition also wants to adjust laws in order to enable private security research, while aiming to direct public agencies to focus on closing security breaches, instead of buying or using them as they’ve been doing so far.
As another cherry on top, the coalition agreement again and again states the need for Open Access to public data and that code financed by public money should be open-sourced. Security researchers might soon not only be allowed to test the public infrastructure, but also help make it better. The agenda on civil rights in general and the internet infrastructure specifically really holds up to the “Dare More Progress” promise.
Today, most of the current issues surrounding digital policy in general and big platforms specifically are approached both on the European and on the national level. The coalition acknowledges this, seems to support more harmonization at the European level and plans to adjust the national legislation to new, harmonized European rules. The coalition agreement specifically states support for the currently pending major regulation on digital services (EU-DSA), on digital markets (EU-DMA) and the E-Privacy-Directive. Even though support for the ambitious European Legislation is explicitly stated there, the agreement does not go into much detail on how the coalition partners envision this ambitious framework on the practical level. The coalition does not want European legislation to fall behind existing national laws, strongly supports interoperability requirements and wants strong user rights, protecting the freedom of expression while still effectively fighting disinformation.
It is worth noting, though, that there may be at least some small directional decisions on two highly disputed regulatory tools.
First, I could not find a clause about “harmful content”. This could be a major hint on the direction regarding online speech. Harmful content is a newly created legal term that includes not just unlawful speech, but also lawful speech that might harm or offend others. Some proponents want to extend the strict rules regarding take-downs for private platforms on harmful content, while many civil rights activists caution and warn that this could lead to extensive filtering efforts by online platforms. Not mentioning the term could be seen as a decision against the inclusion of harmful content as a new category of speech and that the new government errs on the side of caution when it comes to the protection of free speech.
Second, the ideas on fostering competition in digital markets are a little more concrete. Next to the general call for an ambitious Digital Markets Act, the coalition states some key points regarding the content of such. The coalition agreement states clearly, that the possibility to break up companies that repeatedly harm competition is supposed to be a tool of last resort. Before breaking up Meta, the coalition wants to update anti-trust rules to avoid the emergence of dominating market players in the first place, make it easier to prevent killer-acquisitions at the European Level and strengthen the federal anti-trust agencies when it comes to digital platforms.
Artificial intelligence is one of the trending buzzwords in politics as well as in business for a couple of years now. Everyone is scared of it; every startup seems to be developing it, but nobody really knows what the term means. The traffic-light partners don’t even try to define what artificial intelligence is, but still agreed on how to regulate it(s use). The coalition, again, explicitly supports a European approach and the Artificial Intelligence Act proposed by the European Commission. Within this the coalition calls for a risk-based approach, meaning that not the technology itself should be regulated, but its specific use. While implementing regulation of high-risk applications, the coalition wants to protect the citizens civil rights, prevent discrimination as well as ex-ante requirements for service providers. With the clearly stated opinion on the limited need for pre-approval, the coalition makes clear that the German Government will err on the side of innovation and not treat every use-case of a multi-purpose technology like a nuclear plant.
Besides the general innovation-friendly approach towards artificial intelligence regulation, the coalition acknowledges the need for civil rights protection in the context of artificial intelligence. The agreement stipulates several times, that both biometric surveillance in public spaces and social scoring by states should be banned on the European Level – another win for progress.
When it comes to digital and technology policy, the traffic-lights coalition has indeed planned to “Dare More Progress” and fix long lasting problems in the digital sphere. I personally would have loved a little more detail about the use of the blockchain-technology to empower users in the upcoming web3-era. Nonetheless, by making user civil rights, openness and innovation guiding principles, as well as ending harmful practices like the governmental use of security breaches, the coalition agreement seems to be starting a new epoch in digital and technology politics towards more progress.
A few days ago, I talked to with Mariela Milkowa about the life in Israel during the rocket attacks of the Hamas from Gaza. The interview aired on the 22th of May 2021 at 10:05am on hr-Info.
You can listen to the full-interview or read the accompanied news-article.