Global Development Or Digital Colonialism - A Need For An International Legal Framework For Data As A Resource

Author: LawSphereX

Category: Technology, Cyber & Privacy

Published: 2026-08-23T20:01:37.689797+00:00

Updated: 2026-08-30T07:05:43.164Z

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT OR DIGITAL COLONIALISM: A

NEED FOR AN INTERNATIONAL

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

FOR DATA AS A RESOURCE

Daiwik Pratap Singh, O.P. Jindal Global University

ABSTRACT

Powerful nations and tech corporations in the Global North engage in data extraction from developing countries, undermining sovereign control over information and economic value. In many African and Asian states, weak or uneven data protection regimes enable a “Scramble for Data” whereby Big Tech extracts and monetizes user data for profit with nominal benefit to the source, echoing colonial patterns of resource plunder, arranging global digital infrastructure to serve their ends and undermine the selfdetermination of societies in the Global South. This unregulated flow of data from the periphery to tech hubs in the Global North erodes the ability of poorer states to govern their digital economies and protect their citizens’ privacy and autonomy.

International law’s silence or active complicity in this arena reinforces digital colonialism with the absence of a binding international data regime, largely reflecting the interests of powerful actors and constraining the policy space of developing countries. The result is a form of modern economic and political control: digital colonialism functions as an extension of imperial power where foreign corporations control critical infrastructure, capture local markets, and even influence political discourse with the onset of Artificial intelligence.

INTRODUCTION

In the contemporary world, under digital colonialism, foreign powers, led by the United States plant infrastructure in the Global South engineered for its own needs, enabling economic and cultural domination while imposing privatized forms of governance. To accomplish this, major corporations design digital technology to ensure their own dominance over critical functions in the tech ecosystem. 1 Digital colonialism is part of the modern-day “Scramble for Data” that takes place through the extraction and control of user data by large-scale tech companies. 2 Digital colonialism has two broad factors, firstly Digital colonialism's dominance over the three core pillars of a digital ecosystem that’s software, hardware and network connectivity. Secondly, Big Data which involves the collection, storage and processing of user data.

This is further complemented when one takes a look at the UNCTAD Report of 2019, which shows that just seven companies account for almost 70% of the market value of the digital platform economy. Five are US companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft). 3 These companies all belong to the Global North. Looking at colonialist practices several similarities emerge. For example, under colonialism, Europeans dispossessed the natives of their land, settled their territories, put them to work as slaves and servants, instituted horrific acts of violence, and perpetuated dependency and plunder through strategic underdevelopment. Corporations played a pivotal role through the “pathological pursuit of profit and power”4.

This prosperity through the use of the native population’s resources was never shared with the native population and a similar trend seems to be emerging with the current Global order. The aim of the paper is not to draw parallels to colonialism directly and propose that the Global North is directly colonialising the Global South in a repeated trend, however, the paper proposes that a sort of indirect colonialism is emerging which exhibits many similar traits to that of early colonial practices. Instead, the paper aims to analyse how the absence of robust international legal protection for data sovereignty perpetuates digital colonialism in the Global 1 Danielle Coleman, ‘Digital Colonialism: The 21st Century Scramble for Africa through the Extraction and Control of User Data and the Limitation of Data Protection Laws’ (2019) Michigan Journal of Race and Law 417.

2 Ibid, 418.

3 Sven Hilbig, ‘Development Opportunity or Digital Colonialism? The planned WTO E-Commerce Agreement’ [2021] Global Governance Spotlight sef: 1, 1. 4 Joel Bakan, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power first published 2005 Free Press New York); Dominique Lapierre, A Rainbow in the Night: The Tumultuous Birth of South Africa (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2009).

South. Counter-digital colonialism will require an international legal order that treats data as a sovereign resource and guards against its unchecked extraction, thereby empowering Global South nations to reclaim agency in the digital domain through a Third World Approach to International law (TWAIL). The paper will first go on to define the term Digital Colonialism through Big Data, after establishing the basis for Digital Colonialism the paper will discuss and suggest further through a Global South perspective if the same could be tackled by recommending an intentional legal order. DIGITAL COLONIALISM AND THE MORDEN WORLD Digital Colonialism cannot be described in isolation and there are two major aspects in which it plays out in the contemporary scenario.

Firstly, Digital colonialism is a structural form of domination exercised through the centralized ownership and control of the three core pillars of the digital ecosystem: software, hardware, and network connectivity. As we will see, control of these pillars vests the Global North particularly the United States with immense political, economic, and social power. This control is channelled using, GAFAM (Google/Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft) and other corporate giants, as well as state intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency (NSA) which act as the New Imperialists in the international community. Their assimilation into the tech products, models, and ideologies of foreign powers led by the United States constitutes a 21st-century form of colonization.

5 The Second manner in which Digital Colonialism is said to play out is through Big Data, this involves primarily involves user data that Corporations and states are collecting, storing, and processing in enormous amounts in centralized databases of information about the world’s netizens. This enables them to infer traits about people (such as their sexuality, religion, substance abuse habits, political affiliations, and behavioural tendencies) that the people do not disclose themselves. The data is then used to manipulate individuals, groups, and organizations for the interests of corporate profits and state power. 6 Big Data violates privacy by its very design. To make sense of the gargantuan data sets collected, data miners make heavy use of 5 Michael Kwet , ‘Digital Colonialism: US Empire and the New Imperialism in the Global South’ (2019) 60 Race and Class 1.

6 Ibid, 9.

artificial intelligence (AI). AI typically “learns” by analysing enormous datasets for the purpose of predicting outcomes. When applied to people, it collects personal and historical information to predict the future. Because machines do not “think”, Big Data must derive its predictive accuracy from the richness of data that can be collected about individuals and groups. Given that massive amounts of data are needed, it generally requires mass surveillance. This not only violates privacy at its core but data that directly does not violate privacy is also mined by these corporations that then use it to generate profits that are transferred to the Global North, ultimately the same data from the Global South that is being used to generate profits. Even corporations and countries within the Global North are beginning to express concerns about the data monopolization tied to Big Data and AI.

7 However, simple reforms will not fix the problem, because the structural design of the ecosystem favours concentration. DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY AND DATA AS A RESOURCE There is little reason to believe the Global South will produce viable competitors in the future due to the industry being dominated by players from the Global North corporations. As it has been highlighted previously in the paper this Data holds extreme value in the contemporary world. Look at currency for example, Currency can be defined as a system of assets, property, or natural resources owned by someone or something of general use in a particular country, similarly, data has become the new currency or rather access to this data is an access to a resource that is being exploited in the Global South nations.

8 Data is collected by various corporations by tracking one’s digital footprint, this includes recording a large variety of data including but not limited to, ad clicks, device-specific information, face scan, ISP, ad name, phone numbers, search queries, time, and data. Browser history, email addresses, IP addresses, location, operating system, and profile information. 9 The data collectively creates an “anonymous digital profile” of millions of users which can ultimately be used to integrate multiple accounts to produce personalised content and can be sold to data brokers which can be further used for selling access to users for targeted advertising by third party corporations, 7 House of Lords ‘AI in the UK: ready, willing and able? ’ (Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, 16 April 2018), accessed on 21st March 2025.

8 N(1), 424

9 Ibid, 424.

or collected and stored for future predictive analytic use. 10 With onset of artificial intelligence and machine learning gives companies the capability to better synthesize billions of data points including the person’s background, political beliefs, views etc. This creates digital footprints that provide in-depth knowledge about one’s life and this very data is eventually synthesized, used, and sold for immense profit. 11 Data of the citizens of the Global South is like a treasure trove for the tech companies and acts as a Natural Resource which can be extracted and sold as a commodity to the corporations and political interests who base their revenue on the knowledge of their target groups so that they are able to push political agenda or sell targeted products.

12 This demonstrates that data in its current form is now a Resource in itself that needs the world's attention, as this data is extracted from the Global South nations and exploited by the countries in the Global North or corporations in the Global North. In order to tackle the exploitation by these corporations the Global South nations must come together and help declare sovereignty over digital resources such as data. One of the preliminary steps towards this could be to approach the United Nations to pass a Resolution similar to the ‘General Assembly Resolution 1803 (XVII), “Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources” passed in 1962’. This resolution was responsible for declaring permanent sovereignty over Natural Resources.

This could also be done either by declaring data as a Natural resource and including it within the ambit of the 1962 UNGA Resolution or another resolution inspired by the 1962 UNGA Resolution could be passed. If another resolution altogether is being passed can be inspired by the following key ideas of the 1962 UNGA resolution. Firstly, the 1962 UNGA Resolution declared the rights of peoples and nations to permanent sovereignty over their natural wealth and resources to be exercised in the interest of their national development and the well-being of the states’ people such a clause can be added 10 Suneel Grover, ‘Big Digital Data, Analytic Visualization, and the Opportunity of Digital Intelligence’ (SAS INSTITUTE INC.

, 2014), accessed on 16th March 2025; Steven Melendez and Alex Pasternack, ‘Here are the data brokers quietly buying and selling your personal information’, (FAST COMPANY 2019), accessed on 16th March 2025. 11 Vivian Ng and Catherine Kent, ‘Smartphone Data Tracking Is More Than Creepy Here’s Why You Should Be Worried’ (THE CONVERSATION, 7 February 2018), accessed on 23rd March 2025.

12 N(1), 428.

to the resolution for sovereignty over digital resources. 13 Secondly, the 1962 UNGA resolution also states that the profits derived must be shared in proportions freely agreed upon, in each case, between the investors and the recipient state, due care being taken to ensure that there is no impairment, for any reason, of the state’s sovereignty over its natural resources. 14 A similar profit-sharing provision can also be declared in a resolution addressing sovereignty over its data and digital resources. Thirdly, the UNGA resolution also furthers the fact that there must be a free and beneficial exercise of the sovereignty of peoples and nations over their natural resources must be furthered by the mutual respect of states based on their sovereign equality. 15 Declaration of such a provision also helps further mutual respect between nations and their digital sovereignty.

Lastly, the UNGA Resolution of 1962 also contains the fact that a violation of the nation's sovereignty over its natural resources is understood to be contrary to the spirit and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and hinders the development of international cooperation and maintenance of peace. 16 Similarly, the resolution on digital sovereignty can add such a declaration in order to maintain its credibility. Resolutions can be furthered by the Global South Nations to lay the foundations for a Legal framework governing the flow of data and digital sovereignty over it by the Global South Nations. A TREATY FRAMEWORK WITH EXCEPTIONS MODELED ON THE GATT ARTICLE XVIII A declaration like the one paper discusses in its previous section is a broad idea, it is up to the nations in the Global South and their leaders to accommodate the integrities.

The paper however in furtherance of the foundations laid by a declaration (as the one that the paper proposes) further proposes a treaty framework to push for a larger Legal framework. This treaty framework can be modelled like any other legally binding treaty between its members and its objective is to regulate the flow of data and digital information between nation-states. However, the paper proposes to highlight the expectations that such a treaty must contain which can be modelled based on the expectations present under article XVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), such exceptions will help in the furtherance of providing a level 13 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1803 XVII Permanent Soverignity over Natural Resources 1962, 2.

14 Ibid.

15 N(13).

16 Ibid.

playing field to the nations in the global south. For the purposes of this paper the words ‘treaty’ and ‘agreement’ will used interchangeably. Moreover, it is important to also highlight the fact that though GATT and WTO, in general, are often criticised for having detrimental effects on the nations in the Global South, however, it does not take away from the fact that certain elements can be taken inspiration from and be used for facilitating the interests of nations in the Global South and this is one such provision that can be taken advantage of. Article XVIII of GATT contains provisions for exceptions that help facilitate deviation from the core objectives of the Treaty.

Clause 2 of the article states that economies with low standards of living and in the early stages of development are allowed to deviate from the provisions of the Agreement and the government is allowed to provide assistance for the same and put protective measures in place. 17 This is more apparent from clause 4(a) of the article clearly states that a contracting party, the economy of which can only support low standards of living and is in the early stages of development shall be free to deviate temporarily from the provisions of the other articles of the agreement, but this needs to be done in accordance with section A, B and C of the article XVIII.

18 Article XVIII of GATT also takes into consideration the economies that are in the process of development but, do not fall under the definition of low standards of living or in the early stages of development as mentioned under clause 4(a) of the article and still deviate from general provisions of the agreement under clause 4(b) subject to the provisions of section D and is still in the process of development. 19 These clauses can be specifically tailored with respect to data flow protecting nations and giving the flexibility to deviate from agreement to protect their digital resources, allowing them to put restrictions and at the same still being party to the global data networks and sharing data as a resource for the common good rather than their digital resources being exploited. Moreover, Sections A, B, and C address specific conditions under which such deviations are feasible.

Section A specifically addresses the promotion of a particular industry and a deviation to facilitate that is allowed. 20 Section B helps put restrictions in order to balance payment by a nation to ensure economic stability and thus, deviate from the general principle of the agreement. 21 Section C paves the way for the government to assist in promoting the 17 General Agreement on Tarrif and Trade Article XVIII Governmental Assitance to Economic Devlopement 1994, Clause 2.

18 Ibid, Clause 4(a).

19 N(17), Clause 4(b).

20 Ibid Clause 7.

21 N(17), Clause 8-12.

establishment of a particular industry.22 The same is true with respect to Section D of the article for economies that are still in the process of development.23 These provisions do have their check and balances in place however, the paper proposes that these can be taken into account such that, they are tailored to keep in mind the interests of the Global South nations enabling them to form an international legal framework which is absent in the contemporary world order.

CONCLUSION

The unchecked dominance of Big Tech over the digital ecosystems of the Global South reflects a modern extension of colonial power, digital colonialism. Through centralized control of data, infrastructure, and platforms, corporations rooted in the Global North continue to extract economic value from the Global South, undermining sovereignty and perpetuating global inequality. The paper thus, aims to demonstrate that data must be recognized as a sovereign resource, and its exploitation must be addressed through binding international legal frameworks. A United Nations declaration modelled on the 1962 resolution on natural resources, along with a treaty incorporating flexible exceptions inspired by GATT Article XVIII, can pave the way for foundational legal architecture.

Such measures would allow nations to protect their digital economies, promote indigenous innovation, and resist exploitative data regimes. In a world where data is currency and control, reclaiming digital sovereignty is not only a developmental imperative but also a matter of justice. Colonialism is any for either visible or digital must not be tolerated.

22 Ibid, Clause 13-21.

23 N(17), Clause 22-23.