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Digital sovereignty trend goes global: Why are so many countries shifting away from US tech?
France is saying au revoir to American big tech and bonjour to digital sovereignty.
The French government plans to ditch Zoom and Microsoft Teams by 2027 in favour of locally made video conferencing tool Visio. That has been in development for a year and is part of Suite Numérique, a collection of French-made services and tools to replace American-made digital services. The tools are only for the government, not the public, but include everything from secure messaging and cloud file storage to document text editing.
“The aim is to end the use of non-European solutions and guarantee the security and confidentiality of public electronic communications by relying on a powerful and sovereign tool,” said David Amiel, Minister for the Civil Service and State Reform.
He added: “This strategy highlights France’s commitment to digital sovereignty amid rising geopolitical tensions and fears of foreign surveillance or service disruptions.”
Beyond those motivations, reports note that the switch to Visio could save €1 million per 100,000 users on licensing costs.
China-made equipment and the digital sovereignty trend
This is hardly the first time companies and governments have considered the origins of their technology – and China-made equipment and services have long been seen as a security concern by Western nations.
The US recently forced TikTok’s owner to sell off the bulk of the US arm of the app, while the federal government has effectively banned the use of Huawei and ZTE by its agencies. Texas has even stopped state employees from using the shopping apps Shein and Temu.
The UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have all banned infrastructure from a range of Chinese companies from some critical communications networks, while the EU issued a draft proposal last week planning to phase out “high risk” suppliers in critical sectors. Those plans have been in place since 2020, but have proven difficult to achieve due to high costs.
“This is an important step in securing our European technological sovereignty and ensuring greater safety for all,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in a statement according to Reuters.
The growing trend towards digital sovereignty
Now, many of those countries are also reconsidering Silicon Valley’s presence in all aspects of their infrastructure, hardly a surprise given communications networks are widely considered critical national infrastructure. That’s led to the rise of data sovereignty, cloud sovereignty and most recently AI sovereignty.
When it comes to the US, the issues aren’t new. Edward Snowden’s revelations of the extent of US NSA surveillance degraded mutual trust, which was further damaged by the whole Cambridge Analytica scandal. But the return of Donald Trump to the American presidency raises long-running concerns that even allies may not always be trustworthy – just ask Denmark and Greenland.
That’s been exacerbated by the extent to which Big Tech is so very much under the thumb of Trump – consider the Jeff Bezos-backed Melania documentary as but one example – so it’s no wonder countries around the world are a bit concerned.
A global trend?
Given Trump’s attitude towards Europe and its leaders, it’s no surprise that the EU is building up its efforts towards digital sovereignty.
The cloud in particular. That includes the pan-European Gaia-X cloud, frameworks for developing sovereign AI as part of the EU AI Act, and local efforts, such as France’s software alternatives and Germany’s local data centres. It’s increasingly a selling point for providers: for example, SAP last year pledged €20 billion to build out European digital resilience via its Sovereign Cloud portfolio.
But similar trends are being seen around the world – and they’ve been in the works for years. Australia introduced a framework requiring all government data be stored onshore with certified providers, while the recent National AI Plan supports local AI capability for public agencies. Canada has its Sovereign AI Compute Strategy too.
India rolled out its own data protection act in 2023, ensuring personal data must be stored locally and launched projects to develop locally made AI and sovereign cloud with TCS and SAP. Beyond that, a thinktank in India has called for a Digital Swaraj Mission to reduce reliance on American digital platforms including cloud, devices and AI, over fears that a US-ordered cutoff could shut down much of the country.
What about digital sovereignty in the UK?
British telecoms giant BT last year unveiled its sovereign data platform for the public sector and businesses, while activists have called on the government to reduce its reliance on US tech providers in favour of digital sovereignty.
The UK Open Rights Group noted that American companies have been reportedly used to further American interests – or punish where deemed necessary. For example, the ORG noted that Microsoft was accused of blocking the email account of an International Criminal Court prosecutor after Trump issued sanctions on the group for its arrest warrant against Israeli PM Netanyahu. (Microsoft denies this, but the ICC shifted to OpenDesk shortly after.)
Other examples the ORG noted include disabling John Deere tractors stolen by Russia from Ukraine, and the UK parliament finding via an inquiry that there was “clear evidence of collusion” between Huawei and the Chinese Communist Party, leading to its equipment being removed from UK networks.
Perhaps the only wonder about the digital sovereignty trend is that it didn’t happen sooner.
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