Valdai Club

On March 24, the Valdai Club held an expert discussion, titled “The Politicisation of Digital Supply Chains as a New Geopolitical Strategy. How Can States Resist?” The moderator was Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club. He raised the question of the impact of technological platforms on society and the possible danger of manipulations associated with them.

Arvind Gupta, head and co-founder of the Digital India Foundation, noted that the Internet was originally created as a public good, but over time it has turned into a weapon and tool of geopolitical struggle. Most of the digital platforms that control the data flow are located in the United States - and clearly do not observe the principles of geopolitical neutrality. At the same time, having enormous power, they do not bear any responsibility for the dissemination of misinformation. In addition, payment systems and even smartphones, which are used to secretly collect information about users, have become weapons in the framework of geopolitical confrontations. “We must develop certain rules: platforms must not violate the laws of our countries. In the end, they got such power only because we allowed them to,” he concluded.

Glenn Diesen, a professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, argued that the free market is also extremely important and maintaining tight control over digital platforms and restricting their activities is not justified. However, he acknowledged that without digital sovereignty, there can be no state sovereignty, and that countries need systems of national control over data. “We live in an age where digital independence is being used as a weapon. The era of trust is over... It is necessary to follow a balance between communicating with partners and ensuring your own digital sovereignty. China, Russia, South Korea, and India are already moving in this direction,” Diesen said. He added that it is important to avoid a monopoly so that if one or another platform leaves the country, users can switch to another painlessly.

Igor Ashmanov, President of Kribrum JSC, pointed out the impossibility of reaching effective international agreements in the field of Internet control and information security. All such attempts, he said, are torpedoed by the Americans. In turn, attempts to conclude an agreement on artificial intelligence are opposed by both leaders in this field - America and China. He is also sceptical about the ability to force digital platforms to comply with government laws outside the United States. The expert considers digital sovereignty a possible way out, but this is a complex phenomenon and almost no one has the opportunity to fully build it. What remains is the already discussed option of creating a balanced mixture of technologies with the exception of monopoly, when no player can dictate its will, and international cooperation is needed with open source technology transfer, with training so that technology users can actually own it and develop it, rather than just use it.