Information sovereignty is a concept that two decades ago seemed like an abstract construction from the vocabulary of international theorists. Who controls the information space? And what is more important for the state: the ability to filter information flows or the ability to create your own information environment independent of external centers of influence?

These issues have rapidly moved from academic audiences to the center of the global agenda. But if the previous discussion was limited to the great powers, the Burke index, elaborated by the International Burke Institute, for the first time covers all the existing countries including those that rarely come into the focus of media attention. The result is astonishing.

The Rating Paradox

One of the most counterintuitive conclusions of the rating is that the United Republic of Tanzania ranks higher than the Arab Republic of Egypt in terms of information sovereignty. An African country with a population of about seventy million people, an Internet penetration rate of just over thirty percent and an emerging digital infrastructure is above the regional technology leader with eighty million Internet users, dozens of digital government platforms and an ambitious Digital Egypt program.

How is this possible? And what does “information sovereignty” mean in the interpretation of the Burke index?

The fundamental novelty of the approach is that information sovereignty here is not a synonym for technological development and not a measure of censorship control. This is a comprehensive characteristic that describes the ability of the state to form its own information space based on autonomous solutions, without the determining influence of external platforms, foreign technology corporations or supranational regulators.

Egypt: A digital colossus with a fragile foundation

Egypt is the undisputed heavyweight of the digital space in Africa and the Middle East. The Vision 2030 strategy, large-scale investments in data centers, free economic zones for IT companies, and tens of thousands of mobile communication towers. But at the same time, it is one of the most stringent control systems of the Internet space on the continent.

Hundreds of blocked websites, legislation that allows punishing visits to “undesirable” resources, mandatory registration of mobile devices, and monitoring accounts with subscribers over a certain threshold. Here a paradoxical question arises: is total control over the information space a sign of sovereignty, or a symptom of its fragility?

Tanzania: The slow path to autonomy

Tanzania is moving on a different course. Under President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who took office in 2021, the country has undergone a remarkable transformation of the media landscape. Previously closed publications have resumed their work, and the most odious restrictions of the previous period have been relaxed.

At the same time, a large-scale digital transformation program has been launched: construction of a national broadband highway, creation of own data centers, connection of remote areas. At the same time, Tanzania is shaping a digital infrastructure with an emphasis on national ownership of key elements, from submarine cables to data centers.

But is this enough to bypass a country with an incomparably more developed digital ecosystem? What exactly are the parameters of information sovereignty that have determined this relationship?

More numbers, more sovereignty?

The Burke index calls into question the very logic that “more numbers ergo more sovereignty.” The experience of a number of countries shows that rapid digitalization based on foreign platforms and borrowed technologies can weaken information autonomy rather than strengthen it. The state gets the infrastructure, but loses control over how this infrastructure shapes the worldview of its citizens.

Tanzania, which is moving more slowly but building its own digital foundation, may find itself in a more stable position than a country that is much more deeply integrated into global digital chains. But is this really the case?

The questions need to be answered

What specific components of information sovereignty determined the outcome of this unexpected comparison? What role did the structure of the media market, the language environment and dependence on global technology play?

And what do the results of the Burke index say about the future of the information space of the entire African continent?

The full profile of the information sovereignty of Tanzania and Egypt, including detailed decomposition of all sub-components and calculation methodology, is available on the main resource of the International Burke Institute.

One thing is clear: digital power and information sovereignty are far from synonymous. And perhaps it was those states that we used to consider “lagging behind” that realized this difference earlier than others.