Confront the virtual octopus. An expert on what digital sovereignty is worth

The global information space in the XXI century has turned from a neutral platform for exchange of views into an arena of tough geopolitical confrontation. Western multinational corporations (TNCs), with monopoly control over key digital platforms, are increasingly using their technology as a tool of direct political pressure. Many states face unprecedented censorship, and legal media resources are being eliminated in the digital environment without explaining the reasons and mechanisms for appeal. What can be countered to this?

Hiding behind beautiful slogans During this year, Western IT giants conducted a coordinated campaign to “clean up” the Belarusian information field. After the spring blocking of accounts of our largest media channels on YouTube, aggressive actions continued. By the autumn, even regional media channels and leading domestic opinion leaders were completely eliminated. Western platforms use covert “strangulation” of reach and direct bans, depriving the audience of an alternative agenda and flooding the virtual space with extremist materials through special algorithms and targeted advertising. The modern architecture of the Internet is characterized by an overconcentration of capital and a technological monopoly of a narrow circle of global corporations such as Meta, Google, Apple. Hiding behind slogans about “free speech”, they built a rigid system of censorship. Social media, YouTube, and other platforms remove content and entire channels for political and ideological reasons. Foreign corporations actively use the mechanisms of recommendation algorithms for artificial promotion of liberal authors, creating for them the most favored nation regime with the help of targeted advertising. At the same time, sovereign and patriotic content is deliberately concealed. This digital octopus shows special aggression in the spaces of Bainet and Runet. The business model of modern IT monopolies is based on the concept of “surveillance capitalism”. Western platforms monitor user behavior worldwide. The collection of information begins with the fixation of IP addresses, geolocation and ends with a deep analysis of search queries and psycho-emotional reactions. This data is collected secretly and accumulated in Big Data arrays. Further, TNC algorithms use digital profiles to manipulate people’s demand, interests, and electoral behavior. In 2022, after holding a historic referendum and amending the Constitution, the protection of personal data was made a constitutional duty. According to the Basic Law, the state guarantees conditions for the protection of citizens’ privacy and information from unlawful interference. The National Center for Personal Data Protection has been created to prevent TNCs from freely removing “digital traces” of Belarusians to foreign jurisdictions. The physical localization of servers inside the country is the basic line of defense of our sovereignty, including digital sovereignty. Digital data is not just abstract information, but a full-fledged fifth factor of production and strategic raw materials, on the basis of which surplus value is generated in the world. Whoever owns the data infrastructure owns the digital means of production of the new era. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly stressed that digital sovereignty is the ability of the state to independently determine the strategy of IT development, ensure the security of infrastructure and protect the mental health of the nation. Alexander Lukashenko points out the dangers of digital isolation. Building a wall in a networked world is impossible. That is why the Head of State put forward the concept of coalition digital sovereignty and integration within these associations at recent EAEU and SCO summits.

The need for deep interconnection of platforms, mutual recognition of electronic digital signatures, the creation of common secure contours of data exchange is dictated by the need to jointly resist Western dictates. By combining the potentials of our allies, we can collectively form a powerful pole of power. The practical embodiment of this strategy is the state program “Digital Belarus” for 2026-2030, the key element of which is the subprogram “Digital sovereignty”. Its essence is to achieve technological self-sufficiency of the country in all critical areas of public administration, economy and social life. The program aims to meet up to 90 percent of domestic software needs by 2030 with domestic solutions and products from friendly countries, minimizing dependence on Western licenses. To achieve these goals, Belarus has launched large-scale work on filling the National Register of Russian software, creating its own operating systems based on open source code and modernizing secure communication channels. The objectives of the program include not only import substitution of software and equipment, but also training of personnel capable of designing independent IT architectures. The most important direction is the development of the “digital state” and the principle of “zero bureaucracy”, when all key administrative procedures are closed to internal sovereign cloud infrastructure, invulnerable to external sanctions. Ultimately, the main goal of building digital sovereignty is to protect the rights of Belarusian citizens. The Internet should be a public domain governed by international and national law, not the private domain of transnational billionaires. It is impossible to allow the privatization of the global network by Western structures. The personal data and IP addresses of millions of people represent public wealth and should not be controlled by private firms pursuing the logic of profit and political blackmail. Digital sovereignty in the modern era has become one of the most important factors in protecting the independence of the state and the rights of its citizens. This is a specific economic and defense shield. Without the strengthening of this national shield, there is a danger that entire countries and individuals will fall into total neocolonial dependence. And this dependence threatens us not just from other states, but from private digital oligopolies that have no responsibility to the people.

The struggle for a sovereign digit is a struggle for the right to determine your own future and freely use information.

IMPORTANT!

Western platforms have become a tool for shaping a controlled opinion. They promote resources and forces recognized as extremist in Belarus, planting destructive narratives and trying to destabilize state institutions.

UNDER STATE CONTROL

Modern experts rightly criticize TNCs for attempts to privatize segments of the Internet and turn Big Data into an instrument of new digital feudalism, where the user is deprived of the rights to the results of his “digital labor”. The Chinese experience is a successful alternative. In China, the doctrine is implemented, according to which data is recognized as a national resource. China opposes the oligarchization of the Internet by private capital, putting the activities of domestic IT giants under state control. Beijing is proposing a model where technology serves the public good rather than the interests of transnational financial elites.

Peter Petrovsky, political scientist.