Doomscrollers by day, gamers by night

This article examines the complex landscape of digital sovereignty inthe WB states against the backdrop of the technological rivalrybetween the US and China and the region’s EU accession. A doubleanalytical lens is introduced to analyse digital sovereignty: ‘sovereigntyover’ and ‘sovereignty through’. The article shows that WB states arenot merely passive recipients of external technological initiatives.Instead, they are portrayed as opportunistic and sometimes strategicactors operating within digital dependencies. Their technologicalchoices are shaped by formal policy frameworks, market forces, andinstitutional capacities, with a focus on cost efficiency. In particular, thepaper analyses the interplay between China’s Digital Silk Road and theUS-led Clean Network Initiative in the region. It shows that some WBstates join US pressure to ban Chinese technologies (e.g. Albania,North Macedonia, Kosovo), while others (e.g. Serbia, Montenegro,and Bosnia and Herzegovina) maintain cooperation with Chinesedigital companies, often for pragmatic reasons. Ultimately, the articleargues that digital sovereignty in the Western Balkans is a function oftechnological and institutional capacity, geopolitical pressure, discur-sive framing and strategic adaptation by local actors, which raises thequestion of whether their hedging strategies truly represent digitalsovereignty or illustrate a permanent lack of it.