Sovereignty for citizens, not just states: Ensuring European citizens have choice and control of their digital footprint, access and data

Katarzyna Szymielewicz, President of Panoptykon Foundation, participated in Funders’ briefing on Digital sovereignty organised by the European AI and Society Fund.

I.a. Katarzyna argued to expand the idea of sovereignty:

“European technological sovereignty should be understood as the people’s ability to proactively shape technological progress and innovation consistent with the fundamental rights enshrined in the EU Charter, the best interests of citizens and society as a whole.“

This includes looking beyond control of the physical infrastructure (servers, undersea cables) and thinking about communication platforms, storage services, identity systems, and the software, protocols, and standards that support them.

“Whether we like it or not, social media platforms became critical infrastructure for the distribution of essential knowledge in society. Safeguarding democracy in the digital age requires ensuring that public discourse is not controlled by a few very large companies, whose recommender systems determine the content people see.“

She argued that the algorithmic recommender systems that social media platforms use to prioritise and amplify content shape Europe’s political debate, constituting a loss of sovereignty. Panoptykon calls for “algorithmic pluralism” ensuring “people have choice in the algorithms that feed them information and can move between providers” as a way of reasserting citizens’ autonomy in the digital public sphere.