- At Interconnect World Forum 2025 in Tokyo last week experts challenged enforceability of localisation laws amid global data flow
- LARUS CEO Lu Heng warned that technical architecture does not support political borders
What happened: Data sovereignty debate opens with sharp criticism
Interconnect World Forum 2025 began in Tokyo on June 5, bringing together global internet infrastructure leaders. One of the key sessions on day one focused on the heated issue of data sovereignty and cross-border data regulation.
The panel featured experts from infrastructure firms, cloud providers, and policy circles. Among them, Lu Heng, CEO of LARUS, delivered one of the boldest challenges to current data localisation trends. Governments worldwide are introducing rules that require data to remain within national borders. While these policies aim to boost privacy and security, panellists said they often raise deeper problems.
For example, Lu and others stressed how modern users constantly share data across global platforms. This behaviour makes strict localisation difficult to enforce and nearly impossible to contain.
Moreover, panellists worried that fragmented rules could divide the internet. They said it might slow innovation and damage international cooperation.
The session made clear that although the goals behind data sovereignty seem valid, the path forward remains full of trade-offs. Experts called for more open dialogue, better coordination, and realistic approaches that balance national interests with global digital freedom.
Lu Heng: You cannot isolate the internet with a legal document
Lu Heng’s intervention focused on the incompatibility between data localisation mandates and the technical design of the internet. “The internet is built to be interconnected, and the idea that data should never cross borders contradicts that foundation,” he said. “You cannot isolate the internet with a legal document.”
He went further, warning that such laws may have a “psychological value” for governments but lack enforceability. “People still voluntarily give their data to foreign platforms every day. Are we pretending this doesn’t happen?” he asked.
On the topic of AI and cloud services, Lu argued that even more data is now being centralised in the hands of a few providers, primarily located in North America and China. “If these AI models have already trained on everything online, what sovereignty are we talking about?” he said.
Despite his criticisms, Lu acknowledged that data localisation laws have led to one unexpected benefit: increased investment in infrastructure. “To comply with local laws, cloud providers are setting up regional data centres, which helps decentralise infrastructure. That’s the upside.”
He closed his remarks by advocating for a decentralised and redundant internet infrastructure. “If we lose one data centre or jurisdiction, there should always be a backup. That’s the only way to ensure real sovereignty—through continuity and access, not isolation.”
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Why it is important
As governments double down on data sovereignty laws, this session revealed growing unease among infrastructure leaders. With cloud services, AI models, and IP address systems still largely centralised, panellists stressed that technical and legal coordination must evolve together. Otherwise, fragmented compliance efforts may threaten the efficiency, interoperability, and security of the global internet.
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Lu Heng’s comments reflect a broader industry concern that political borders cannot effectively contain the flow of digital information. This disconnect between legal expectations and technical realities is creating increasing friction—especially for global platforms serving users across multiple jurisdictions.
At the same time, the pressure to localise data is accelerating infrastructure development in underserved regions—posing both challenges and opportunities for global internet governance. New data centres and backbone routes may emerge, but without coordinated policy, fragmentation could outpace progress.
