Affective Sovereignty — A Minimal Declaration on Emotional Interpretation Rights in the Age of Algorithmic Power

This paper is a philosophical and ethical declaration addressing a central question in the era of emotion AI: Who holds the authority to interpret emotions—the person who feels them, or the system that detects them? The author proposes the concept of Affective Sovereignty, arguing that emotions are not merely data points but core expressions of human autonomy and identity. In this context, the paper also introduces the notion of Uniqueness Violation, a conceptual framework for understanding how preemptive algorithmic interpretation may undermine one’s emotional selfhood. Three ethical design principles are proposed for emotion AI systems: Interpretive Transparency, Design Restraint, and Identity-Responsive Feedback. Rather than offering a critique alone, this work presents a minimal declaration—a normative and foundational call for emotional interpretation rights in the age of algorithmic power.