The state-sponsored messaging application, ORIZ, has been initiated in Tajikistan, which is a key step in the direction of becoming digitally sovereign in the environment of growing regional efforts to restrict dependencies on foreign services.
The project will also serve the interests of the millions of Tajik expatriates to Russia who will face restrictions in accessing popular apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, and at the same time serve the larger goal of securing the data security of the state because they will be assured that the data pertaining to the users will not go beyond the national borders of Tajikistan.
On the digital front, Tajikistan announced the launch of its communications service as a significant move towards the digital independence of Tajikistan, but this directly tackles the threats of information security that comes with foreign network dependencies.
Tajikistan, the poorest of the former Soviet republics, has been governed since the early 1990s by President Emomali Rahmon, who came to power during a civil war and continues to keep the country’s politics under tight control.
Several post-Soviet countries have in recent years signaled interest in launching national messenger services to supplant WhatsApp and Telegram, both of which remain widely used in the region.
Russian officials have been promoting Moscow’s state-backed MAX messenger, whilst Kazakhstan has done the same with its Aitu app.
Such national projects show a political control and technology strategy combination of the control over digital communications infrastructures.
This segment of the target market is a significant part of the potential customers of ORIZ because Telegram and WhatsApp are blocked in Russia, and there is a reasonable need among the Tajik migrant population to have a tool of communication security and accessibility that meets the requirements of national sovereignty laws.
The government promises that any data used by ORIZ users will be stored within the country, an important provision that will help in reducing privacy issues that have been raised concerning using similar applications that breach the privacy of the user.
Critics however, caution that state domination of such messengers can also create surveillance threats, just as global applications have been facing issues with surveillance and state-sponsored versions of the same.
The standards of transparency and encryption will probably define the acceptance of ORIZ in other than the purely political interest.
In the perspective, ORIZ is an illustration of a more significant geopolitical and technical transformation between countries concerned with digital independence.
With the investments of such countries as Tajikistan in serious digital infrastructures, these countries face the challenge of ensuring innovation, balancing between surveillance and privacy issues.
The identified investment in developing digital professionals is an indication that the growth would be possible in the long term in case of clear governance.
ORIZ is potentially a part of the digital economy that grows exceptionally fast in the Central Asian region, given that it is capable of earning the trust of the users in the form of the strict use of security guarantees and practical feasibility.
However, local pressures on application use and data sovereignty will probably require a continual tradeoff between transparency and regulation.
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