Digital sovereignty and national security in Kazakhstan: public attitudes toward information control and cyber protection

The study analyzed the public attitudes of Kazakh citizens towards digital sovereignty and state control over the information space. Based on a cross-sectional survey of 450 respondents from eight regions of Kazakhstan, the study indicated the level of support for state practices of digital control, namely content blocking, communication monitoring and data localization. The study also identified socio-demographic, regional and value factors that shaped these attitudes. The results indicated a moderately positive but internally differentiated pattern of support (M = 3.24 on a five-point scale): data localization (M = 3.61) and platform restrictions (M = 3.42) received higher support compared to monitoring of private communications (M = 2.89). This identified a clear psychological boundary between the perception of the legitimacy of external digital sovereignty and internal surveillance. Hierarchical regression analysis determined that the value orientation towards security relative to freedom became the strongest predictor of support for state control (β = 0.34, p < 0.001) and surpassed the level of perception of cyber threats (β = 0.29, p < 0.001) and institutional trust (β = 0.22, p < 0.001). Age and education level became significant demographic predictors. Macroregional analysis indicated differentiation between urban and rural areas (η 2 = 0.096). In particular, the study shows that the lowest support for state control is recorded in Almaty, and the highest in rural areas of Zhetysu region. The study proposed a model of differentiated digital legitimacy and made a significant contribution to understanding the perception of hybrid authoritarian regimes and the assessment of different forms of state control over the digital space.