The SWING – School on Internet Governance 2026 concluded after an engaging programme dedicated to the evolving meanings and challenges of digital sovereignty. Across the final days of the school, participants explored digital sovereignty through a range of perspectives, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, infrastructures, geopolitics, fundamental rights, competitiveness and data governance. DCN members played an active role throughout the programme, contributing lectures, roundtables and groupwork sessions that connected debates in internet governance with broader questions of rights, responsibilities and democratic governance in the digital age.

Marianne Franklin contributed a lecture on digital sovereignty and fundamental rights, foregrounding the rights-based dimensions of internet governance. Claudia Padovani led a session on Indigenous Data Sovereignty, opening an important discussion on collective rights, situated perspectives and the need to rethink sovereignty beyond state-centred approaches. Mauro Santaniello moderated the roundtable on “The Geopolitics of Digital Sovereignty,” featuring Ksenia Ermoshina and Grace X. Yang, which explored the political, regulatory and geopolitical tensions shaping digital sovereignty today.The final day opened with two lectures focusing on the relationship between digital sovereignty and emerging technological challenges. Nicola Palladino delivered a session on “Digital Sovereignty and AI,” examining how artificial intelligence is reshaping governance debates and regulatory priorities. This was followed by Mauro Santaniello and Jamal Shahin, who addressed “Digital Sovereignty and Cybersecurity,” highlighting the security dimensions of sovereignty in increasingly interconnected digital environments.