News & Events
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Internet ‘kill-switch’ in Iran
Francesca Musiani (CIS-CNRS, ClaimSov team member) has intervened several times in the French written and audio-visual media in early January about the internet shutdown (‘kill-switch’) orchestrated by the Iranian authorities in an attempt to quell the massive protests. This large-scale shutdown is emblematic of a broader trend, in which several states are implementing « kill switches »…
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A political economy of bans against Chinese technology
The latest issue of the geography and geopolitics journal Hérodote (2025/4, no. 199) has been published. It addresses the thorny question, « Europe Towards Power? » ClaimSov project members Riccardo Nanni and Francesca Musiani contribute to the issue with the article « Analyzing Digital Sovereignty within the European Union: A Political Economy of Huawei Bans » (in the French…
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« Is the Internet going to explode? »
In this podcast (in French, for France Inter), journalist Xavier de la Porte explores the radical transformation of the Russian internet since the 2010s, with insights from Francesca Musiani, ClaimSov member and CNRS researcher. This analysis reveals how Russia has progressively isolated its internet from the rest of the world in the name of « digital…
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The socio-technical politics of digital sovereignty
Peer-reviewed article publication: Samuele Fratini, 2025, The sociotechnical politics of digital sovereignty: Frictional infrastructures and the alignment of privacy and geopolitics. Big Data & Society, 12(4). In this article, ClaimSov post-doctoral researcher Samuele Fratini advances an approach informed by Science and Technology Studies (STS) to digital sovereignty. He argues that digital sovereignty can be conceptualized as an…
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ClaimSov Annual Meeting, Paris, October 20-22, 2025
The first Annual Meeting of the ClaimSov project took place in Paris, France from October 20 to 22, 2025. For three days, we discussed at Centre Internet et Société (and in nearby restaurants…) how to move forward with the mapping of policy documents that is the core task of the first part of the project.…
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Interview with taz: Moving Away from Google, Microsoft and WhatsApp
Julia Pohle gave a German interview to taz titled « Away from Google, Microsoft, and WhatsApp: ‘Those who switch now are doing so of their own accord.’ ». She warns that Europe is technologically, economically and politically dependent on US tech firms, which creates real risks such as pressure from the Trump administration, and argues that reducing…
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Digital Authoritarianism in the Making
This book, edited by Françoise Daucé (CERCEC-CNRS), Benjamin Loveluck(University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas) and Francesca Musiani (CIS-CNRS), is a revised and expanded English version of the book Genèse d’un autoritarisme numérique published in French (Presses des Mines, 2023). This book is available in open access. How did the authoritarian dynamic that is currently plaguing the Russian internet (Runet) come to dominate a digital space that…
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Geopolitics at the Internet’s Core
Book publication by ClaimSov member Francesca Musiani, with Fiona M. Alexander, Laura DeNardis and Nanette S. Levinson (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2025). Contentious geopolitical conflicts over digital technologies have arisen around a complex set of technical specifications at the Internet’s core. One of these is the Internet Protocol (IP), designed for addressing and routing information to its destination.…
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Between Kafka and Kung Fu: European vs Chinese Strategies for Sovereign AI
This re:publica talk in German, « Between Kafka and Kung Fu – European vs. Chinese strategies for sovereign AI » compares Europe’s approach to AI sovereignty with China’s state‑driven, scale‑oriented model. Presented by Marielle Düh together with Frederik Heinz, the session offers a critical analysis of the trade offs between political control and market innovation and what…
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Unthinking Digital Sovereignty
Special Issue « Unthinking Digital Sovereignty » in Policy & Internet The special issue, published in Policy & Internet in early 2025 and co-edited by Julia Pohle, Mauro Santaniello and Riccardo Nanni, features six articles that seek to “unthink” digital sovereignty by deconstructing and (re)conceiving it from different viewpoints. While some of the issue’s contributions provide much-needed…