Europe Accelerates Shift Away from US Big Tech Platforms
Original: All the Ways Europe Is Ditching American Technology
Why This Matters
Represents significant shift toward digital sovereignty and away from US tech dominance
European governments and companies are rapidly moving away from American technology companies following Trump's second administration. The European Parliament switched to French search engine Qwant, while French government uses open-source office software LaSuite.
Since Trump's second administration began, European entities have accelerated plans to reduce dependence on US Big Tech. The European Commission launched official long-term plans to rely less on US technology. The European Parliament replaced Google with French search engine Qwant as default. French government workers use open-source office suite LaSuite to 'break free' from American tech dependence. Cities across Netherlands, France, and Germany are moving from Microsoft Office and Google Docs. The Dutch government is transferring code from Microsoft's Github to its own repository. Finland decided against moving election data to Amazon's cloud services. Belgium's .be domain organization plans to leave AWS. Changes are driven by concerns over data control, US sanctions on ICC officials, potential data access under US CLOUD Act, and closer Big Tech-Trump administration relationships.