Governments around the world are increasingly focused on digital sovereignty. Done thoughtfully, digital sovereignty strengthens resilience, security, and trust while preserving access to the best technologies. But when used as a protectionist measure to restrict choice, even among allies, the effects are troubling and ultimately weaken the resilience that digital sovereignty initiatives seek to build.
For customers making significant investments in enterprise software and systems of record – AI, cloud services, customer management tools, cybersecurity services – questions about digital sovereignty are just as consequential. Amid geopolitical uncertainty, customers need confidence that governments will neither restrict their choice of trusted technology based on where a provider is headquartered nor disrupt lawful access to the services and systems on which they have built their operations.
Those concerns about continuity of service can become self-reinforcing. As governments seek to reduce perceived dependencies, they may adopt measures that further restrict customer choice — including national-origin restrictions on technology providers, security requirements that exclude trusted global providers, or preferences for less capable domestic alternatives.
The notion that a government could cut off access to a technology service provider has undercut some of the most ambitious goals of initiatives like the American AI Export Program, which seeks to expand adoption of market-leading AI and cloud services around the world. A thoughtful policy response can halt momentum toward market restrictions and extend the reach of trusted technology services across likeminded nations.
Greater Certainty Can Help
Providing greater certainty about continuity of service both furthers the dissemination of best-in-class technology services and allays concerns about overdependence on any one provider.
Today, there is limited clarity about the circumstances in which governments could require technology providers to discontinue otherwise lawful services to customers abroad. This uncertainty gives momentum to policies that judge technology providers on the location of its headquarters rather than its security, resilience, or performance.
BSA is calling for agreements on this topic between the EU and US, and US and Japan. Congress can also act to address uncertainty by enacting legislative language to ensure continued access to technology services among trusted partners, and better define the national security circumstances in which service might be impacted.
How Congress Can Create Certainty
One way Congress can build greater confidence in continuity of service is by establishing a Trusted Technology Dissemination Program to ensure continued access to critical technologies. Legislative action could:
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- Provide continuity assurances for trusted providers. Establish assurances for technology providers that meet strong and objective security, resilience, and sanctions-compliance requirements.
- Strengthen coordination with allies and partners. Encourage mutual commitments on continuity of digital services and early-warning mechanisms to anticipate and manage potential disruptions.
- Define national security exceptions. Governments should preserve the full authority to act against adversaries, attackers, and proliferators; and restrict the provision of technology to designated countries of concern, terrorist groups, narcotics traffickers, cyber criminals, and those who otherwise threaten national security.
Digital sovereignty does not have to mean digital isolation. Governments can strengthen resilience through diverse technology supply chains and partnerships built around rigorous security and performance criteria — without closing markets or restricting providers based on national origin.
Greater certainty around continuity of service can reinforce that approach. Congress has an opportunity to build confidence among governments and customers, strengthen digital resilience, and help ensure that legitimate sovereignty concerns do not become unnecessary barriers to secure, innovative technologies.