Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty

A roadmap to build a digital stack for people and the planet

Download

Lead authors

• Cecilia Rikap, University College London
• Cédric Durand, University of Geneva
• Edemilson Paraná, LUT University
• Paolo Gerbaudo, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
• Paris Marx, Host of Tech Won't Save Us

This policy paper outlines a progressive reform agenda to enhance digital sovereignty for people and the planet. Digital technologies are crucial for the proper functioning of modern societies, yet the way we currently arrange their development and deployment promotes economic centralization and winner-takes-most dynamics that work against the public good. Given the high costs to develop these technologies, their relevance and their ecological footprint, a plan for an alternative model requires states to step in and design public, multilateral institutions with autonomy from specific governments that can provide infrastructure and essential digital services as public services or commons built through international cooperation. For that aim, we offer the following 4 key proposals:

• Offer a democratic, public-led digital stack that shall include: 1) Digital infrastructure as a service (for training, processing and developing digital solutions) provided by non-profit and democratic international consortia; 2) universal platforms, such as search engines and foundation AI models, that should be a commons governed by new public institutions with state and civil society representation; and 3) a public marketplace where companies can offer their computing services without lock-ins. To assure demand, states shall procure from this marketplace and end contracts with Big Tech.
• Craft a research agenda focused on digital developments that are not driven by the hype or pressures of technological solutionism but that have the potential to solve collective problems and enhance human capacities. This agenda would require consideration for the ethical, economic, ecological, and political impacts of technological development and adoption, including of AI applications. It should also be inspired by addressing the world’s main challenges in a holistic, interdisciplinary, and non-profit way. For this end, public knowledge networks led by a new public international research agency (or regional agencies) could counterbalance the expanded concentration of private and closed science.
• Ground digital sovereignty in an ecological internationalism that rejects seeing sovereignty as a battlefield among countries, which neglects that today’s rulers are not only powerful states but also leading corporations. This could be promoted as a chapter of theNon-Aligned Technologies Movementthat recognises how nationalist technological agendas will worsen the ecological breakdown and exacerbate underdevelopment. Internationalism is also an antidote to individual government surveillance and power abuses, and is essential for minimising the resources needed to build a democratic, public digital stack.
• Establish strict mechanisms at every step to dismantle existing and prevent potential forms of state surveillance or misappropriation of collective solutions by specific governments. Multilateral agreements on principles and rules for the internet are indispensable safeguards for building autonomous and democratically governed institutions and solutions.