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

Abstract

This policy paper outlines a progressive reform agenda to enhance digital sovereignty for people and the planet with the following 4 key proposals: 1. 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. 2. Craft a research agenda focused on digital developments that could solve collective problems and enhance human capacities and that consider the ethical, economic, ecological, and political impacts of technology, including of AI applications. For this end, public knowledge networks led by a new public international research agency (or agencies) could counterbalance the concentration of private and closed science. 3. Ground digital sovereignty in an ecological internationalism an antidote to individual government surveillance and power abuses that also minimises the resources needed to build a democratic, public digital stack. 4. Establish strict mechanisms to dismantle 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. To complement and facilitate all the above, the authors further lay out a strategy on retrofit markets’ authorities for the digital age and implement measures to properly regulate and tax revenues and data and knowledge capture of dominant technology companies. The new policy framework outlined in the paper also aims at protecting labour and enhancing its creative autonomy while contributing to the reinforcement of human and civil rights. One aspect could be a safety net in which states offer training and employment for the development and operation of the public-led digital stack.