How can states be empowered against GAFAMs?
Overview
Like any new object that does not fit into any of the pre-existing boxes, digital activities raise new regulatory issues: how to protect private data? Do platform workers need a specific status? Should crypto-currencies be banned or regulated? Should the trade in NFTs associated with works of art be taxed? Should the content exchanged on social networks be controlled? How can the economic model of traditional media be preserved when GAFAMs are taking a growing share of advertising revenues?
Among these questions, some are directly related to the sovereignty of states: for example, crypto-currencies, conceived as a way of decentralising the creation and circulation of money, reach the regalian function of the state (or of communities of states in the case of the euro) by allowing private agents to issue money. Others are less central but lead to questions about the adaptation of the provisions laid down for the physical world to the new digital universe.