Societal Threats
By Yoel Frischoff
How tangibles create new forms of inequality through cost barriers, digital literacy requirements, and accessibility challenges, plus strategies for inclusive design and equitable technology deployment
Governments declare and conduct policies, along with international governing bodies, standards organizations - to protect their citizens from cyber security threats. These actions may start in legislation, regulatory actions, international cooperation.
On the other hand, governments have been known in the past to use regulation as a non-tariff-barrier in order to impede entry or rapid expansion of foreign companies, protect domestic manufacturing.
A prominent example: in May 2019, the U.S. added Huawei to the Department of Commerce’s Entity List, barring American firms from doing business with it without a licence. This followed the 2019 NDAA, which had already banned federal use of Huawei gear over national security concerns. The FCC later banned Huawei equipment sales entirely. These actions disrupted Huawei’s global operations, cut revenues, and pushed it to develop alternatives to U.S. technology — while prompting allied nations to reassess Huawei’s role in their critical infrastructure.
