Europe's Digital Future: A Road to Non-Domination?

The publication of the strategy “shaping Europe’s digital future” early 2020 marked an important step in the EU’s strategy for dealing with the huge changes to society brought by digital transformation. The strategy refers to three key objectives: technology that works for people, a fair and competitive economy, and an open, democratic and sustainable society. The notion of ‘digital sovereignty’ features prominently in discourse, and the strategy has resulted in some of the most ambitious pieces of regulation worldwide. Some have described the extensive regulation as ‘digital constitutionalism’. This paper analyses, through a republican lens, the degree to which striving for digital sovereignty and digital constitutionalism reflect attempts to secure freedom in the digital sphere, by controlling or limiting the arbitrary power wielded by large technology firms. It also questions, based on the same republican framework, the reliance on individual control and market competition, arguing for a more active role of the EU in cultivating a vibrant digital commons.