Tech Giants and Giant Slayers: The case for Digital Sovereignty and the Digital Commons | Open Rights Group
Research Tech Giants and Giant Slayers: The case for Digital Sovereignty and the Digital Commons
Tech Giants and Giant Slayers: The case for Digital Sovereignty and the Digital Commons
Executive Summary
Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty
- Digital Sovereignty is critical for the UK’s economic and national security. It is defined as the ability of a country to have control over its digital infrastructure, data, and technology.
- The UK is currently facing a crisis of digital dependency. The country is overly reliant on a small number of tech giants for its critical digital infrastructure, which poses significant economic, security, legal, and policy risks, including to democracy and public debate.
- A strategic shift to using and growing the Digital Commons — that is, open technologies — provides the most effective path to Digital Sovereignty. This includes shared Open Source software, open standards, and open hardware, which can foster a more competitive and innovative domestic tech sector, reduce costs, and enhance security.
The high cost of digital dependency
In Part I The Digital Sovereignty challengewe find:
- Economic risks. The dominance of a few tech giants leads to vendor lock-in, inflated costs for government and businesses, and the extraction of value from the UK economy through tax avoidance and profit repatriation.
- Security risks. Reliance on foreign proprietary technology creates vulnerabilities to surveillance, espionage, and cyber attacks. These risks are produced by foreign legal frameworks, which govern both US and Chinese technology companies.
- Surveillance risks. The UK is exposed to the extra-territorial jurisdiction of other countries, such as the US Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act and China’s National Intelligence laws, which can compel tech companies to hand over data.
- Policy Risks. The immense lobbying power of Big Tech distorts policy-making, leading to weaker regulation, anti-competitive practices, and a centralised, abusive and anti-democratic digital information environment.
The UK's current position
Part II Current UK policy position shows that:
- The UK lacks a coherent Digital Sovereignty strategy. Current policies are designed to reinforce dependency on foreign tech giants.
- The Government’s analysis ofthe ‘chronic’risksis classified, precluding public debate of its approach.
- Government IT procurement is dysfunctional. It is characterised by a lack of competition, vendor lock-in, and a series of high-profile project failures and cost overruns. Like other areas of government procurement, there is not a functioning market, so government cannot expect good procurement while it is a passive recipient of software services. There is insufficient focus on known solutions to resolving this dysfunction. Solutions include: leadership in development and ownership of custom software; requirements for interoperability; preferencing Open Source; and leveraging competition policy in the cloud market.
- Competition and data protection enforcement have been weakened. This invites tech giants to further consolidate their market power and continue to engage in anti-competitive practices. It appears to be a response to dependence, seeking to attract further inward investment that will build economic extraction rather than reduce it.
Digital Sovereignty reduces costs and grows the digital economy
We show in Part III Beyond the UK how other countries are benefiting from prioritising Digital Sovereignty.
- Building the economy. Germany, France, Netherlands, Denmark and other European nations are actively pursuing Digital Sovereignty through strategic investments in open technologies and international collaboration.
- International collaboration. Provides a model for governments to create and control key technologies for common problems, including in health, data and procurement.
The opportunity of the Digital Commons
- Growing the Digital Commons with Open Source software offers a major opportunity for the UK in modernising critical government systems and strengthening control over public technology infrastructure.
- It can repair the relationship between government and the technology it relies on, by reducing dependence on proprietary vendors and restoring public sector control.
- Greater investment in Open Source can also drive UK economic growth, supporting domestic innovation and a more competitive technology sector.
- Despite underpinning much of the global digital economy, Open Source remains underrecognised in UK government strategy.
- National economies would be **2–3% smaller without Open Source software**.
- Open Source is present in over 95% of proprietary software systems, making up **around 70% of their codebase on average**.
- EU research suggests **every £1 invested in Open Source returns around £4 in economic value**.
- The Linux Foundation estimates **2–5x return on investment for organisations contributing to Open Source, rising to around 6x for leading contributors**.
- France’s **government preference for Open Source procurement helped generate 9–18% annual growth in IT startups**, while also creating globally valuable Open Source assets.
- In the UK, OpenUK estimates Open Source contributes **around £13 billion annually, representing 27% of the technology sector**.
- A 2024 Harvard study estimates the global demand-side value of Open Source at $8.8 trillion, noting firms would need to spend **3.5x more on software without it**.
- European Commission research suggests **a 10% increase in Open Source contributions could add 0.4–0.6% to annual European economic growth**.
The way forward: a roadmap to Digital Sovereignty
See Part IV Recommendations for a Digital Sovereignty strategy.
- Embracethe Digital Commons of Open Source: The UK should adopt a “Public Code for Public Money” policy, where software developed for the public sector is made available under an open source license.
- Strengthencompetition andregulation: The UK must empower its regulators to challenge the market dominance of tech giants and enforce pro-competitive measures, such as interoperability and data portability.
- Builddigitalleadership in Government: The UK needs to rebuild its in-house technical expertise to reduce its reliance on external consultants and make smarter procurement decisions.
- Fosterinternationalcollaboration: The UK should actively participate in international initiatives to develop open standards and digital public goods, and collaborate with other countries on strategic technologies like AI and cloud computing.
Key Recommendations for the UK Government
For the full recommendations, see A Roadmap for Digital Sovereignty.
- Reset UK digital policy to make Digital Sovereignty a central strategic goal.
- Drive competition and effective regulation to create a more level playing field for UK businesses.
- Deliver ‘Public Code for Public Money’ to build a commons of publicly-owned software.
- Invest in the UK’sOpenSource ecosystem through procurement, tax incentives and skills development.
- Build digital leadership within government to drive the transition to open technologies.
- Protect democracy by promoting a more diverse and open social media landscape.