Description
The debate about different forms of cyber sovereignty is largely theoretical and abstract. What is missing from the literature are empirical case studies of how states use cyber sovereignty in practice. This paper aims to address this gap by revealing how state actor(s) in the EU and of China apply cyberspace sovereignty to counter the increasing influence of technology companies, in the issue area of cloud computing technology. We look at how a state’s regulatory framework is used to counter the influences from these non-state actors. We will first assess how the EU exerts normative constraints towards foreign tech companies through a case study on Alibaba. Then, we will look at how China operates the regulatory power towards Apple icloud. We aim to contribute to the literature in two ways. Firstly, we aim to understand how state actors engage with giant technology companies in cyberspace. Secondly, we aim to unpack the similarities and differences between democratic and authoritarian regimes in exerting regulatory power towards rising tech companies. We draw primary data from interviews with technology companies and Chinese academics and publicly available documents.
