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RAS History & PhilologyАзия и Африка сегодня Asia and Africa Today

  • ISSN (Print) 0321-5075
  • ISSN (Online) 2782-2389

Digital Sovereignty of African Countries: Threats and Ways to Protect Them

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PII
S0321507525020023-1
DOI
10.31857/S0321507525020023
Publication type
Article
Status
Published
Authors
Sufiyanova Gulnur
  • Occupation: PhD (History), Head, Department of International Relations and Regional Studies
  • Affiliation: University of Tyumen
Abstract
The article analyzes the consequences of digitalization of the African continent in the context of technological, economic and political rivalry between the United States and China, and Africa’s growing dependence on external partners. The central issue is data security, the process of using the data is considered by the experts through the concepts of “data colonialism”, “digital colonialism” and “digital sovereignty”. The author notes that, on the one hand, digital technologies can contribute to increased productivity, dynamic growth, structural changes and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals on the African continent; on the other hand, they create new problems and challenges. It is concluded that the digital sovereignty of the states of the African continent, in addition to technological and economic problems, is hampered by competition in cyberspace of extraregional actors, primarily the United States, China and the EU, in the regulatory and legal field, which is taking on a political and ideological nature. It is extremely difficult to achieve digital sovereignty, understood as the right of states to regulate and exercise control over technologies, services and digital data used on sovereign territory in the current circumstances due to the fact that overcoming of quite a few issues is impossible without investment and participation of Western and Asian digital giants, which, in the context of active competition for Africa, are themselves the cause of them.
Keywords
Африка цифровой колониализм цифровой суверенитет суверенитет данных цифровая экономика защита данных цифровое противостояние
Date of publication
19.09.2025
Year of publication
2025
Number of purchasers
0
Views
2

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