Digital Sovereignty

Digital sovereignty is the power to exercise legitimate authority over one’s own digital domain, unimpeded by illegitimate external interference. As peoples and nations confront rising geopolitical tensions, strategic dependencies, and accelerating technological change, this capacity has become increasingly consequential. Debates over artificial intelligence (AI) regulation (Roberts 2024 ), semiconductor export controls (Chapman 2024 ; Miller 2022 ), and the politicisation of social media platforms (Tambini 2025 ; Kitchens et al. 2020 ) all concern who can exercise such authority. Control over standards and protocols increasingly shapes global interdependence and functions as levers of sovereignty (Musiani 2022 ; Nanni 2022 ). Meanwhile, ‘Big Tech’ corporations govern vast user populations, exercising forms of authority over civic life that can rival or exceed those of governments (Braun and Hummel 2024 ; Almeida et al. 2025 ).