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Digital Freedom, AI Regulation, and the Fight for the Western Internet | The a16z Show

Katherine Boyle speaks with Sarah Rogers, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, about the intersection of AI, free speech, and global information systems. They discuss how major technological shifts, from the printing press to the internet to AI, have reshaped communication and power, and why this moment may be even more consequential. Recorded at the a16z American Dynamism Summit, the conversation explores the role of public diplomacy in the digital age, the risks of censorship and overregulation, and how governments are approaching AI as both a national security priority and a platform for global influence. Rogers also highlights the importance of maintaining “AI with a Western soul,” and why preserving open systems and freedom of expression will shape the future of innovation. Timestamps: 00:00 - Trailer 00:43 - Introduction & What is Public Diplomacy? 03:23 - Internet Freedom: From the Arab Spring to the Censorship Era 05:28 - The Digital Freedom Office & Reversing Government Censorship 07:02 - EU's Attacks on Free Speech & the Thierry Breton Letter 11:35 - AI with a Western Soul & the Global Regulatory Landscape 16:42 - AI, National Security & the Rule of Law 19:00 - How Government Can Encourage Free Speech in Tech Resources: Follow Sarah B. Rogers on X: https://x.com/UnderSecPD Follow Katherine Boyle on X: https://x.com/KTmBoyle Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.

Katherine Boylehost
May 3, 202622mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

State Department’s push for digital freedom amid EU, AI rules

  1. Public diplomacy is framed as the U.S. government’s relationship with foreign publics, increasingly centered on the global information environment where speech and platform governance now shape geopolitics.
  2. The speaker contrasts earlier “internet freedom” enthusiasm (Arab Spring era) with later government-led “disinformation” programs that, in their view, overreached into censorship and opaque content control.
  3. The State Department’s reorganized Digital Freedom Office is described as moving from prior censorship-adjacent efforts toward transparency, user-empowering tools (e.g., provenance, VPN circumvention, Community Notes) and away from NGO-driven gatekeeping.
  4. European regulation is portrayed as a key flashpoint because it can impose extraterritorial penalties on U.S. companies for lawful American political speech, exemplified by the cited Thierry Breton letter regarding hosting a Trump interview on X.
  5. AI governance is positioned as a strategic competition issue: copyright, transparency mandates, and strict liability content rules could weaken Western innovation and security, so policy should favor rule of law, viewpoint neutrality, and resilient “Western-soul” AI systems.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Public diplomacy now operates on the terrain of platform governance.

The discussion treats the “information environment” as the operating system for international relationships, making speech norms and digital rules core tools of statecraft rather than side issues.

Anti-disinformation efforts can drift into censorship without transparency and due process.

The speaker argues that well-intentioned efforts to counter adversary propaganda became “opaque choke points,” urging user-empowerment approaches instead of upstream suppression by government-linked actors.

Digital freedom policy is being recast around user agency and open infrastructure.

Preferred interventions include content provenance, censorship-circumvention tools (like VPNs), and crowd-based context systems (like Community Notes) that are visible and contestable rather than centralized.

Allied regulation can be more destabilizing than adversary censorship when it claims extraterritorial reach.

Unlike firewalls in China/Russia, EU-style penalties tied to speech can pressure U.S. firms globally, potentially chilling First-Amendment-protected discourse through fines and selective enforcement.

“AI with a Western soul” is framed as soft power and a strategic stack to defend.

The speaker emphasizes AI reasoning aligned with individual consent and rules-based norms, arguing that widespread adoption of Western AI infrastructure advances freedom and influence.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Public diplomacy is different. It is my, um, privilege and charge to lead the relationship between the American government and the foreign public.

— Sarah Rogers

So naturally, there is an urge to kind of put the innovation back in the bottle or at least harness it and control it so that legacy institutions can decide who it's for and what it does. And I think it's not consistent with American values or American interests to use or to fetter technology that way. I think we want to use it to make people free.

— Sarah Rogers

The economist Tyler Cowen has this great phrase. He talks about AI with a Western soul, um, and I completely agree with him that that is the greatest soft power tool we can possess.

— Sarah Rogers

And so the proliferation of a Western AI stack is, is really, it's a top priority for our entire administration. It should be a top priority for anyone who cares about freedom.

— Sarah Rogers

They shouldn't be subject to the fiat of Silicon Valley executives or tech workers who, you know, we've seen, you mentioned, you know, woke tech workers in a prior era.

— Sarah Rogers

Public diplomacy as information-environment strategyArab Spring to post-2016 “disinformation” turnState Department reorg and Digital Freedom OfficeContent provenance vs. upstream censorship choke pointsEU speech regulation and extraterritorial enforcementThierry Breton letter and platform liability pressureAI regulation: copyright, transparency, strict liability, and national security

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