The balancing act of regulation and innovation

RAID 2025 speaker and Regulatory Steering Group member Collen Weapond, Commissioner, South African Information Regulator (SAIR) spoke with RAID director Ben Avison about an issue at the heart of the agenda

All over the world governments are looking to boost rather than impede growth and innovation. But doing this without compromising safety and justice is a risky balancing act.

“Everyone is keen and worried about the extent to which you balance between innovation and regulation. If you overregulate you stifle,” Collen Weapond, Commissioner, South African Information Regulator (SAIR) told RAID.

“When regulating, we need to regulate fairly and acknowledge which part of the work is lawful and is innovative, but what part of it is contravening the law – so the balance is struck about how we assess, and how we achieve fairness in the balance.”

This fair balance includes setting fines according to companies’ income. “When fines are issued, they shouldn’t be so huge that people who drive innovation are stifled, confused and scared to innovate. This is not to encourage wrongdoing, but to find the balance, and to ensure that post-fine there is conversation and encouragement. Some companies are not sure of the seriousness of the matter.”

There is also wide variance in the size of fines across jurisdictions. In South Africa, fines for contravening data protection laws are relatively small, not exceeding £300m for the highest contravention.

Weapond points to the example of the Cambridge Analytica scandal to highlight the question of why data protection breaches by multinational companies are handled on a national level. “If users are compromised around the world, why is it only the UK that is issuing a fine?”

This case also demonstrated a global shortage of technical skills, with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office sourcing an investigator from New Zealand to conduct a technical investigation.

Weapond also flags up the challenge of regulating at the intersection of complex fields, such as AI and healthcare. “The regulatory tools could be lacking to go into the health space because it’s quite a technical space. There is a shortage of technical skills on both sides of the regulatory arm – in AI and healthcare.”

All of this points to a need for lawmakers, regulators and innovators across countries and sectors to have the opportunity to connect, align and establish frameworks that are of mutual benefit.

“Regulators and innovators need to find common ground. We don’t know where innovation is going,” said Weapond.