We have been living within a digital ecosystem designed in the United States for more than two decades. Big technology companies not only built the dominant social networks, but also built a network of services around them without real substitutes. From Europe we have been talking for years about technological sovereignty and a possible disengagement – even if it is partial. There are more and more proposals, but at the moment it is more of a wish than reality.
Difficult, but not impossible. Becoming completely independent of American software technology is complicated, but feasible. Our colleague Jose told it just a few days ago, leaving aside giants like Google, WhatsApp, Amazon, or Instagram. The changes made something very clear: the United States has taken over the great pillars of daily technological life:
- Internet searches
- Sending messages
- online shopping
- Social networks
- Email accounts
- Operating systems
The dependence is total, and assuming it is uncomfortable. Countries like France have prohibited their officials from using American platforms such as Zoom and Teams, to promote a video conferencing platform developed in France and under the name Visio. The objective is clear: reduce dependence on foreign technology, minimize costs and achieve a communication standard under European legal control.
The UpScrolled case. After the change of ownership of TikTok, which went from being mainly in Chinese hands to being under the lap of large American companies, the use of social networks such as Upscrolled, an app founded by the Palestinian Issam Hijazi as a challenge to big technology, skyrocketed.
During the last week of January, Upscrolled was the most downloaded social network above Threads, WhatsApp and TikTok in the United States App Store. A paradigmatic case in which Americans themselves opt for alternatives outside their country.
The Proton case. Although less recent, the Proton case is one of the most ambitious in the last five years. From being protagonists only for ProtonMail (end-to-end encryption by default, European jurisdiction and independence from the Big Tech model), to a whole suite with calendar, VPN and storage alternatives.
According to the company, its apps already have more than 100 million users. Good number, but far from more than 100 mil millions of users who have Google services. The distance remains enormous, and explains why technological disengagement continues to be, for the moment, more of a political and cultural gesture than an everyday reality.
Prepared for the worst. The Wall Street Journal reported at the end of January a scenario featuring even more tension. The Greenland case has been the necessary flame to finish lighting the fuse, and the main people in charge of the European strategic sectors want to transfer both their systems and data to local centers.
Thinking about a 100% European software ecosystem does not seem entirely realistic. But imagining a scenario in which the dependency is not complete sounds a little better.
Image | WorldOfSoftware
In WorldOfSoftware | We criticize the EU a lot with its obsession with regulating Big Tech. There are at least two examples that justify this obsession
