My last blog (“Is Google the natural and neutral world brain?”) was about the power of Google. This is just one example of why the dangers of such digital powers are increasingly being discussed in Germany (my home country). Especially in times of ever-increasing digital networking and an (honestly slow) digitalization in Germany, the concept of digital sovereignty has become established in the public (for example, the current German government calls for this in its coalition agreement).
Digital sovereignty
But what does digital sovereignty actually mean?
“Digital sovereignty describes the abilities and opportunities of individuals and institutions to exercise their role(s) in the digital world in an independent, self-determined and secure manner” (CIO Bund self-translated)
It is usually said that Germany has overslept the digitalization and does not have such sovereignty, as it relies purely on foreign (mostly American or Chinese) technology in the digital world. The Digital Dependence Index confirms this feeling and attributes a high level of vulnerability to Germany in this area.
But what impact does state digital dependence really have? Hardly any other scientist has described more drastic digital dependency structures and their effects at a state level than Michael Kwet in his famous article: “Digital colonialism: US empire and the new imperialism in the Global South“.
Digital colonialism
Michael Kwet even goes so far as to compare South Africa’s current digital situation with its colonial past and identifies structural similarities. His thoughts on what the current South African situation looks like under US-led digital colonialism are now briefly summarized:
He first describes a state of economic dominance by the big tech giants from the US. These companies dominate all relevant digital functional areas in South Africa, which means that they are dependent on them for basically every digital action. In an increasingly digitalized world, this leads to a seemingly alternative-free mass extraction of local money and data.
According to Kwet, this economic dominance is similar to imperial control. Through their power over the entire digital infrastructure and the expropriation of resources in the form of data, US tech giants, as the new imperialists, dominate the South African digital space and can shape it as they wish. The local development of new data-based programs is blocked by the monopolization of data, which means that South Africa remains dependent on foreign technology for even longer.
In addition, this imperial control is strengthened by the surveillance of users. Companies use big data, for example, to influence people’s behavior through targeted advertising. I think all of you can say from your own experience that the Instagram algorithm, for example, has become so much better in recent years and now flushes much more appropriate posts and advertising into the feed. And thus lead you to more screen time or purchases. At the same time, it’s not just a company that owns the data, but also the US government if necessary. The US intelligence services are demonstrably and legally cooperating with the big tech companies.
Kwet sees a further aspect of digital colonialism in the ideological consolidation of this situation. The idea that technology and digitalization, as we know it from current products, are the only possible and progressive future means that alternative paths with local technologies that function differently have little chance of establishing themselves.
I heartily recommend taking a closer look at his article in which he elaborates on this (there are also many examples that clarify all of this).
The German digital market
I clearly do not want to apply these thoughts in the same way to a (former) colonial master such as Germany, but as already described, Germany is also said to have a strong digital dependency. For this reason, we should at least take a look at whether South Africa’s starting position of strong economic dominance also applies to Germany. So how does the German digital market looks like compared to South Africa?
Would you have expected the market to be like this and if not, what was unexpected? Do you think it is worrying to be dependent on the digital economy and do you also see the danger that it will not only have economic consequences?
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