Tensions rise. The EU accelerates its break from American tech giants. Donald Trump fuels it, certainly. But the data security fears are old news. Now, governments are actually acting. France leads the charge. They want sovereignty. Control over their own data.
France Goes Rogue (With Code)
French officials don’t want Microsoft anymore. Or Amazon. Or any US company holding their secrets.
“We are not just explaining what we want… We already did it in a few matters,” Stéphanie Schaer told WIRED. She runs DINUM. The digital ministry.
More than 40,00 staff now use a home-grown video tool. Visio. It’s replacing Zoom. Teams gets the ax too by 2027 Schaer promises confidence. They won’t bow to one actor dictating terms.
LaSuite is the bundle. Tchap for chat. Messagerie for mail. Grist for sheets. Some bits are beta. Tchap alone has 420,0Kar active users. Twenty thousand join each month. Impressive uptake for government software.
Open Source Isn’t Free Lunch
They code on GitHub. Microsoft owns the platform. This is ironic. A little tense, perhaps.
“We don’t develop all the code,” Schaer says. They reuse open source. They contribute back.
Visio runs on French tech. Outscale provides the cloud. Pyannote handles AI transcription. The data stays in France. Processed locally. ANSSI approves the hosts. Security remains tight.
Even the health ministry is moving. Away from Microsoft. To Scaleway. A local provider. April announcement followed years of debate.
Cities Join In
Paris isn’t the only one. Lyon follows. Mayor Valentin Lungenstrass speaks openly. Open source means better maintenance. Less reliance on a single vendor’s whim.
70% of Lyon’s workers dropped Microsoft Office. They use OnlyOffice now. Outlook goes too. Linux OS is next. If the interface stays simple. Adoption won’t stumble.
DINUM itself tries Linux. Three dozen staff already made the switch. 250 more trialing it. Small steps.
The Wake-Up Call
Why now? The second Trump administration looms large. Fear of tariffs. Price hikes. Data espionage.
Karim Khan, prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. Microsoft locked his email. Trump sanctioned him. Khan’s bank accounts froze too. The message was clear. US tech serves US politics. The ICC moved to OpenDesk. An European alternative.
Frank Karlitschek sees the trend. Nextcloud customers tripled since last year. They fear the Cloud Act. US laws reaching into European servers.
“Extraterritorial law… It’s a red light for,” says Schaer. She doesn’t accept remote access by US authorities. Even for French data.
Stuck in the Middle?
Can Europe really leave? A recent report says no. US firms control 70% of cloud services. 80% of software spending flows to America. At least 23 nations depend on them for national security.
Open source helps. But it isn’t magic. Henri Verdier notes France always liked strategic autonomy. Other countries trusted Washington too much. JD Vance’s threats over NATO didn’t help that trust.
India offers a model. Digital public infrastructure. State-run. Open. Europe might look that way. But alternatives? Scarce.
Yousef El-Dardiry works with governments. He builds text editors. BlockNote serves both public sector needs and open communities. Collaborative work. Bi-weekly meetings. Real partnership.
Still, you likely carry an Android phone. An Apple iPhone. Both run on US silicon or control. The internet itself is heavily influenced by American policy.
Total freedom is impossible today. Sovereignty is a process. Not a destination.
We start with video calls. Then chat. Maybe email later. The rest remains.
