Autocratic Capture in Global Digital Governance

As private technology firms gain prominence in global standard-setting, autocratic states increasingly deploy state-aligned economic actors as autocratic proxies to reshape technical governance from within. This paper examines how such proxies leverage liberal institutional norms—inclusivity, technical expertise, and consensus-based decision-making—to advance state-aligned preferences in digital infrastructure standards. We identify three mechanisms through which autocratic proxies convert procedural access into institutional influence: functional leverage (establishing indispensability through technical capacity and market dominance), normative manipulation (framing politically motivated provisions as depoliticized technical requirements), and networked influence (coordinating across institutional venues to amplify impact). Analysing two key standard-setting organizations, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), we illustrate how autocratic proxies effectively influence standard setting procedures toward illiberal outcomes. Our mixed-methods approach combines quantitative analysis of contribution patterns and committee participation, text analysis identifying depoliticizing framings, and network analysis mapping coordination across working groups and standards bodies. Our paper advances understanding of how autocratic states exploit liberal institutional design to embed illiberal provisions within ostensibly neutral technical standards in the context of ongoing power shifts from the West to the East.