The Changing American Political Landscape
The American political landscape has radically shifted with Trump's re-election, evading any potential incarceration. Elon Musk played a pivotal role in this re-election, leveraging his wealth, personality, and acquisition of Twitter as decisive electoral tools in a declining American democracy.
During the inauguration ceremony, Musk performed a Nazi salute. The CEO of Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) swiftly embraced Trump's ultra-conservative policies. Other tech giants followed suit, forming a united plutocratic bloc.
In France, the majority of politicians, whether from the right or left, continue to actively use these platforms. For them, having hundreds of thousands of followers (even if a portion are bots) is more valuable than boycotting what has become the most influential far-right media outlet.
Assessing Our Digital Dependence
As American democracy crumbles, we would be remiss not to fully grasp the moral, geopolitical, political, ecological, economic, and digital upheaval unfolding.
Recall 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for reindustrialization. The inability to produce essential goods like face masks or medications was a wake-up call.
It is crucial to understand that this dependence also applies to fundamental digital services that structure our daily lives. How many requests do we send to American servers each day? This digital dependence makes us vulnerable and must be addressed with the same urgency as reindustrialization.
Could We Survive a Digital Embargo?
Have you tried quantifying our digital dependence? Good luck. Particularly, Europe lacks a truly competitive search engine. Ecosia, Qwant, Lilo, and others are merely marginal alternatives to giants like Google and Bing.
Our digital infrastructure is entirely dependent on foreign interests, starting with our smartphones (none are made in France, despite claims).
It's ironic that we can produce "made in France" underwear at €60 a piece but can't manufacture a device we consult hundreds of times a day. Moreover, we lack a French or European mobile operating system because Android and iOS have eliminated all competition. Consequently, we have no means to influence the benefits or social issues related to smartphones.
Our hospitals also rely on Microsoft, particularly its Irish subsidiary, to manage our health data.
The SNCF has migrated its services to AWS, Amazon's cloud subsidiary. Its executives are proud of this, but this dependence poses a major risk: without Amazon, there would be no TGV journeys.
Hundreds of thousands of executives, including civil servants, connect their professional email to Gmail, giving Google direct access to their organizations' strategic information.
Can you imagine how many essential services, like emergency or security services, depend on Google Maps or Waze for their operations? How many associations and businesses have built their external communication on Facebook and internal communication on WhatsApp, both owned by Meta?
Did you know that even at the highest levels of government, Emmanuel Macron used Telegram during his first term, without raising sufficient internal concern?
The End of Free Data Flow?
Relocating our digital infrastructure may seem less urgent than other industries because data traverses oceans instantaneously without apparent obstruction.
However, undersea cables, the information highways, are vulnerable. A disruption in wired and cellular networks could destabilize an entire region, as depicted in the series "Conflict."
GAFAM Dominance as Nuclear Deterrent
We tend to view a nuclear accident as the worst possible disaster for a country. However, a digital blackout could be equally devastating. Imagine the consequences if our hospitals and emergency services were paralyzed by a digital outage.
"We made the mistake of relying on Poutine's fossil gas. Today, we repeat this error by depending on Trump-controlled digital technologies. If he decided to cut off our access to Google and Microsoft services, we would be forced to return to paper directories," explains the director of Ecosia.
Public Power Support
Yet, France is home to a wealth of digital talent. French innovators are behind some of the best LLM advancements, rivaling ChatGPT. It's time to mobilize these talents and trust in their abilities.
A shift in mindset among citizens and leaders is essential to rebuild European digital sovereignty.
Note that the State is making significant efforts, such as deploying the sovereign encrypted messaging service Matrix and creating its own digital suite. In the private sector, companies like Switzerland's Infomaniak and France's Zaclys demonstrate considerable talent. The President no longer uses Telegram and has established a strong stance against its former leader, who turned a blind eye to slave trafficking in the Middle East (Le Monde).
A Cooperative Race
Mistral's success against OpenAI is rooted in open-source and free software, much like China's DeepSeek. OpenStreetMap, a collaborative and free project, offers a digital map as precise as Google Maps.
Even Apple and Microsoft have adopted open-source elements to compete with Google Maps. Qwant has also followed this path by launching its own maps.
An equivalent to OpenStreetMap for search engines needs to be created in Europe, and privatizing it would be detrimental.
The Framasoft association has managed to offer alternatives to Google services despite limited resources.
It is imperative that Europe acknowledges its subordinate position and invests in open-source and European collaboration to meet the challenge of digital relocation.