It is known that the digital economy is also influenced by the uncertainties in economic and environmental policies. Many studies have shown that the rise of economic and environmental policy uncertainty significantly inhibits investment in the real economy. This study investigates the impact of economic and environmental policy uncertainty on the development of the digital economy that presents the characteristics of a virtual economy by using the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020. The bilateral impact of economic as well as environmental policy uncertainty and its net effect are analyzed using a bilateral stochastic frontier model. The research results show that economic and environmental policy uncertainty can both promote and inhibit the digital economy, and the combined effect of the two makes the actual digital economy development level lower than the frontier development level. Further, the role of economic policy uncertainty in promoting the development of the digital economy has increased rapidly since 2017 and reached its peak in 2019. The inhibitory effect of economic policy uncertainty on the development of the digital economy has been declining year by year, accompanied by small fluctuations. Moreover, it is also found that there is more inhibitory effect than promotion effect in terms of environmental policy uncertainty with digital economic development. There are obvious spatial differences in the bilateral effects of economic policy uncertainty on the development of the digital economy. The region with the largest inhibitory effect of economic policy uncertainty is mostly located in the eastern region, and the region with the smallest inhibitory effect of economic policy uncertainty is also located in the eastern region.