Times and technologies change, people change and national positions evolve. Although change is inevitable, and can be gradual or radical, many people find change jarring. America’s evolving position on the free flow of data provides a good example because it looked like the world’s leader of efforts to encourage the free flow and utilization of data was advocating for greater restrictions on openness. This paper examines how and why this occurred. 

To some degree, America’s rising restrictions on data are understandable. After all, data has never been totally benign. Throughout history, some individuals have threatened to reveal private information to prod another person to change their behaviour. Moreover, some countries have historically used disinformation to undermine trust and societal cohesiveness in other countries (Posetti and Matthews 2018; Lanoszka 2019; Lucas 2019).