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25 Colum. J. Eur. L. 135 (2019)
Privacy and Political Integrity: How European Data Protection Laws May Limit the Regulation of Foreign Political Interference in U.S. Elections

handle is hein.journals/coljeul25 and id is 143 raw text is: PRIVACY VS. POLITICAL INTEGRITY: HOW EUROPEAN DATA PROTECTION LAWS MAY LIMIT THE REGULATION OF FOREIGN POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN U.S. ELECTIONS Elvira Sihvola* U.S. elections have seen an unprecedented amount of foreign interference in recent years. In a world where a growing amount of political advertising happens online, this interference also increasingly occurs on the Internet. Revelations ofRussian election meddling in the 2016 election cycle through social media platforms has led American lawmakers and other stakeholders to attempt to address the issue in a variety of ways, including by instating new laws on online advertising and industry-led efforts to reform transparency practices online. At the same time, the European Union has embarked on an ambitious effort to overhaul the regulation of data protection and privacy on the internet by introducing the Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR ), set to take effect in 2019. The impacts of this regulatory overhaul extend well beyond the European Union, impacting the practices of global technology companies and cross-border data transfers. This note discusses the effects of the GDPR on American attempts to regulate interference in U.S. elections, by examining the European data protection framework, American efforts to regulate foreign election interference, and evaluating how these two phenomena interact. The note argues that the requirements of EU's data protection framework may limit the effectiveness of American regulatory efforts by setting strict protections on the privacy of user data. It calls for greater harmonization of data protection laws globally to better meet the increasingly global nature of data flow and online activity. IN T R O D U C T IO N ................................................................................................. 137 P A R T I ................................................................................................................... 1 3 9 Regulatory Frameworks: Data Protection and Political Advertising ...... 139 A. European Data Protection Framework ....................................... 139 i. Fundam ental R ights ........................................................... 139 ii. D ata Protection D irective ................................................... 140 iii. US-EU Safe Harbor Agreement ......................................... 141 iv. The General Data Protection Regulation ........................... 141 * Columbia Law School, J.D. Candidate, 2019.

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