Europe's Growing Rebellion Against American Big Tech

Europe is increasingly turning away from American Big Tech, driven by a growing desire for digital sovereignty. Since the start of President Donald Trump's second administration, governments and companies across the continent have accelerated plans to end their near-total reliance on technology from US firms. This shift is marked by a surge in home-grown tech development, additional funding, and a slew of public instances of companies, governments, NGOs, and education establishments opting for open-source or local alternatives.

The trend is widespread and gaining momentum. The European Commission has launched its official long-term plans to rely less on US technology. The European Parliament has switched its default search engine from Google to the French alternative Qwant.

Thousands of French government workers are using LaSuite, an open-source office software, as officials aim to 'break free' from dependence on American tech firms. An open-source document offering from over a dozen European tech companies, called Euro-Office, is set to launch soon. Cities across the Netherlands, France, and Germany are moving away from Microsoft Office and Google Docs.

It's not just productivity software that's being replaced. The Dutch government is transferring its code from Microsoft-owned Github to its own repository. Finland has reportedly decided not to move its election data to Amazon's cloud services, while the organization behind Belgium's .be top-level domain is moving away from AWS.

Eurosky has been launched as an interoperable alternative to Bluesky on the AT Protocol that underlies both social networks. Marietje Schaake, a non-resident fellow at Stanford University's Cyber Policy Center and a former member of the European Parliament, attributes the shift to the Trump administration's aggressive policies. 'The aggressive policies by the Trump administration, attacking international law, as well as the EU and democratic principles, has led to several wake-up calls,' she says.

Schaake adds that citizens, companies, and organizations are now keen to take their digital future into their own hands, driven by a desire to be 'untangled from billionaire interests as well as Trump's policies.' The concerns driving this change are multifaceted. They include a lack of control over data, changing international relationships, dependence on tech from a small number of companies, potential access to data under the US CLOUD Act and FISA, and the close relationships between Big Tech firms and the Trump administration. While many 'digital sovereignty' plans were in place before Trump's second term, the fallout from US sanctions against officials linked to the International Criminal Court has also played a role in accelerating the shift.