Big Tech regulation, the sovereignty challenge, and sustainable digital ecosystem: In conversation with Aline Blankertz

In this episode of the Nextcloud Podcast, our host Ingo meets Aline Blankertz, a German data economist and digital rights campaigner.

Aline is an economist and Tech Economy Lead at Rebalance Now, where she works on strategies to counter concentrated power in digital markets. She combines years of experience in competition economics with a strong commitment to making markets democratically accountable.

In the episode, we tap into Aline’s expertise in digital sovereignty, open source, and Big Tech regulation to answer some burning questions:

• Why do some politicians and industries resist stronger enforcement against Big Tech companies? What can be done to overcome this resistance?
• What role do open source and open standards play in reducing Europe’s dependency on Big Tech, and how can public procurement and regulations support this effort?
• Sovereignty washing: how do hyperscalers leverage local actors to create an illusion of sovereignty?

What we consider extremely relevant is some form of regulatory sovereignty. From a societal perspective, we need to make sure that we can at least have the possibility to regulate companies. If we want to be a democracy, we want to make rules that apply to everyone. We also need to have the credibility that we can enforce these rules.

Aline Blankertz

Tech Economy Lead, Rebalance Now

And, of course, there’s one more thing we are all curious about: what to expect from the Nextcloud Summit panel session «From open source to open ecosystems: Europe’s next digital play»?

Listen now to find out!

Episode links

• Aline Blankertz on LinkedIn
• Rebalance Now
• Nextcloud Summit registration and agenda

Want to be part of the conversation? Meet Aline Blankertz at the Nextcloud Summit 2026

Aline joins us at the Nextcloud Summit 2026 on June 9 in Munich. She is one of the panelists in the hard-hitting discussion «From open source to open ecosystems: Europe’s next digital play». The session is moderated by Ingo Dachwitz, political journalist at netzpolitik.org, and joined by Prof. Dr. Dennis-Kenji Kipker, Prof. Dr. Johanna Pirker and Holger Pfister.

Join the Nextcloud Summit to attend the panel discussion and ask your questions to the participating panelists.