In a world where leaders lead nations on an isolationist course and Big Tech starts gaining the power to meddle in politics and vice versa, can Europe provide viable alternatives to the Big Tech from the US and China?
As a European citizen in the current volatile political climate, I found myself asking questions like: “I’m becoming less comfortable to use Gmail and the Google Drive suite – is there a European alternative?” and “I’m using Lastpass to store my passwords – that’s American, does that mean that all my passwords could be used by the American government? Is there a European alternative?”. I also found out that it’s not easy to find answers to those questions. After quite some research, I still find I don’t have sufficient information for a good informed opinion. Yes, there are some snippets of information here and there – the best source of information I found is on https://european-alternatives.eu/, which gives a very good overview of European alternatives in many categories, including for example “European mail providers”. Unfortunately, the categories are more business, not consumer, oriented which makes it hard for regular consumers to find the information they want. Furthermore, there is no real evaluation of each of the proposed alternatives, so it is still up to the reader to figure out what works well and what doesn’t.
I had a colleague for some time who frequently asked “what is the compelling event?”. What is the trigger which incentives large corporates or governments to really start moving and allocate resources and budget to something. I have found this “compelling event” theory to be very true. In most large corporates or governments, not much happens unless there is a direct compelling event, like new privacy legislation or rapid customer loss, that triggers a reaction.
The interesting thing is that currently there are, broadly, two compelling events happening: countries are isolating themselves more and more (particularly the US, but others are following) and Big Tech starts to gain the power to meddle in politics as well as vice versa (increasingly so). The isolationist direction is a bit of a problem in the compelling event theory, because it goes slowly and seems less urgent. A good analogy is the frog in a pot of cold water which is slowly being heated until the water is boiling and the frog notices it too late – that seems to be what is happening. Having access to some of the Big Tech services (e.g. Windows or the Google Drive suite) could, hopefully only in theory, become a political bargaining chip nations could use. This should be a compelling event to act, but it isn’t (yet). In addition, all kinds of barriers are being created to trade – the latest ones being the tariffs imposed by the US administration on many countries and regions, including Europe (e.g. see this article). Europe will likely retaliate as well. This also adds to the unpredictability of the availability and cost of US Big Tech products. The second compelling event, where Big Tech is becoming more sensitive towards political pressure, is more urgent and direct. For example, the terms and conditions of Instagram are being updated to align better with the prevailing political direction of the US currently, as for example described here). In addition, Elon Musk is heading DOGE, focussing on improving US government efficiency, but is simultaneously the richest man in the world and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX (amongst others). Other big tech CEOs also seem to be more sensitive towards the political winds in the US. Conflicts of interest where company interests and political interests are mingled cannot be ruled out and given the huge role that big tech plays in all of our lives, this should be a compelling event we, as Europe, act upon. This goes beyond the US and also happens elsewhere, for example in China, where WeChat and the Chinese government are closely linked as is explained in more detail here.
So why me? Well, I am a concerned tech enthusiast who has been using many, many cool new gadgets and software solutions over the past decades. To give a few examples – I love designing 3d models and printing them in 3D, have owned a virtual reality headset for about a decade, build my son’s gaming PC myself and work as an IT architect at a large telecommunications company. When thinking of building this blog, I almost bought hosting space and this domain using GoDaddy. Just before clicking “Purchase”, I clicked (in my head, not with the mouse) that GoDaddy is American. This site is now hosted by Cloud86, a Dutch hosting provider which runs in a Dutch datacenter. After that, I found I can install WordPress with the press of a button. WordPress is the software which runs this blog. That’s also American – I do intend to change this over time, but for now it will do. Even for me, as a tech enthusiast it is really difficult to just use European, or even non American, technology. That should be unacceptable – my mission would be accomplished if I can help some of you make smart choices in the future!
Let me know if you have any ideas on what I should look into or if you have any other feedback.
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