Digital Dēshoom

September 7, 2025

The Internet has connected humanity; but, our dependence on a handful of big-tech corporations has created an existential vulnerability.

Artificial intelligence is accelerating this risk. AI isn’t just a tool — it is embedded in our lives: reading messages, tracking locations, shaping preferences, even acting without our awareness.

If AI is society's brain, then the Operating System (OS) is its spinal cord - the channel through which every signal and decision flows. Whoever controls it, controls us.

The hidden Gatekeeper

Our digital lives are built on three layers: hardware, OS, and apps. Governments have tried to regulate hardware and apps, but overlooked the most powerful layer - the OS.

This invisible layer of control is where the true power lies. While apps come and go and hardware evolves, it is the operating system that ultimately decides what runs, what is blocked, and who holds the keys.

History shows such dominance enables surveillance, manipulation, and even disruption during geopolitical conflict.

Open Source misconception

What appears open, is often dependency by design.

While Android/Linux are nominally open source, manufacturers must bundle proprietary software to remain market viable. These hidden locks ensure big tech retains the keys.

Instead of empowering autonomy, open often locks people into ecosystems - where the code is technically visible, but not practically usable.

They have kidnapped "open" and buried it.

The Ownership illusion

We buy devices, we don’t own them. Through the operating system, manufacturers and platform owners constrain what we can do, dictating which apps we may or may not use.

True sovereignty means: we run what we choose on hardware we paid for.

If we fail to act now, our digital future will continue to remain manipulated by foreign hands.

Path to Digital Sovereignty:

• Mandate modularity: Legally separate hardware, OS, and apps to end forced bundling.

• Guarantee True Ownership by Law: Require manufacturers to provide the technical documentation and rights needed to run any software on the purchased hardware.

• Enforce cryptographic trust: Deploy threshold cryptography so no single entity can dominate.

Reclaim the Operating System; protect our future.

The original promise of the Internet was sovereignty: anyone could run their own service, publish without gatekeepers, and innovate without permission.

Imagine an internet, where your device answers only to you.

Digital sovereignty is not resistance, it is resilience - It's time for nations to reclaim the OS and make our world a better place.