Algorithms, Trade Wars & Sovereignty

You might not think that algorithms would have an impact on trade & tariffs. Surprisingly, they might well be.

Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash

Melody sat on the couch in her flat in Berlin one evening, laptop open to search for a new pair of running shoes, as a digital nomad she’d been working there for a few months, loving her daily runs. All she could find were German brands. She was messaging with her sister working in Beijing, who’d said she couldn’t find anything but Chinese brands.

Later that evening Melody tried to share a documentary with her colleague Ahbed in Canada to watch together. Ahbed couldn’t find it. All he got was a message that said, politely, around content optimisation for regional preferences. This wasn’t a copyright thing. It was an algorithmic block between countries, steering people toward nationally approved content.

This is but two examples of the potential rise of algorithmic sovereignty in a changing geopolitical world. An almost invisible contest for digital cultural territory where nations encode their values, economic preferences and strategic interests in their digital architectures. A move that would mediate our relationship with reality itself.

It could go deeper than this. Impacting trade diplomacy and agreements. Perhaps…