Citizen 2026: Digital sovereignty – breaking up with big tech

How dependent is your municipality on American big tech – and what would happen if it was switched off tomorrow?

On September 17, 2026, communication leaders, digital experts and municipalities from across the Nordics gathered at Sveasalen in Stockholm for Citizen 2026 — a full day dedicated to better citizen communication, dialogue and digital innovation in the public sector.

In this talk, Astrid Haug, Danish communication advisor, author and board member, makes the strategic and democratic case for digital sovereignty – or, as she puts it, breaking up with big tech.

Why now?

Somewhere between 70 and 90 percent of the software used in Europe is American. Astrid argues that this dependence has gone from a theoretical risk to a practical one: threats against Greenland, tech giants aligning with the US administration, the US CLOUD Act and so-called sovereignty washing all show how vulnerable European public data and communication channels are. The goal is not complete independence overnight, but a better balance between local and American tech – one that also builds Nordic and European jobs, skills and values.

It can be done – and it saves money

Drawing on her own year-long break-up with Meta, Google and Apple, and on examples from across Europe, Astrid shows that change is possible. Schleswig-Holstein has moved most of its IT to open source and saves around €15 million a year, Amsterdam has a ten-year plan towards digital autonomy by 2035, and the Danish state has moved 10 percent of its employees away from Microsoft to strengthen its negotiating position.

Rethinking communication, not just replacing Facebook

There is no European copy of Facebook – and Astrid argues we should not look for one. Instead, she suggests peeling the onion: splitting up what the platforms are used for – groups, events, debate, service information – and finding the right channel for each, from newsletters and other owned channels to local peer-to-peer networks and European AI chatbots. Seen this way, digital sovereignty is above all an opportunity to innovate how municipalities communicate with citizens.