Online-Conference Digital Fragmentations and Digital Sovereignty

Recently, there has been a steady global trend towards “digital sovereignty” and “data localization”. Tensions are therefore rising between the vision of an open, global Internet and state tendencies to invoke sovereignty in cyberspace. Data localization requirements could even lead to a splinternet with many regional systems, which could further deter innovation regarding a wider variety of data-utilizing sectors. Accordingly, the idea of the fragmentation or Balkanization of the Internet began to play a growing role in debates on global Internet governance. This debate, however, does not solely cover the Internet as an infrastructure but also considers geopolitics, national jurisdictions, and a power struggle about the future of global governance.