I’ve been saying this for years. It’s been dumb to rely on the US for a loooong time, yet so much of the rest of the world does.
Imagine if they had spent all that money on building up and supporting FOSS instead.
As a Brit, I’m in favour of:
- European digital sovereignty, to reduce dependence on the US, given how unreliable they now are
- The UK being part of efforts for European digital sovereignty
Dear Every Gov Org in Canada;
Why are you still using outlook and oneDrive for all your important stuff? Do you not get it yet?
(I went to pay my mom’s LTC bill for her because she gets confused now. I needed to ask them out something. It was outlook. Then it was visa - no really - for payment. So I’m putting 1500+ a month onto visa while she waits for space. The whole government setup - from comms to payment - would collapse overnight. These people are so flustercucked that I’m expecting their DR and BCP plans amount to a TNG Samaritan Snare.)
Sincerely, Me
The remaining 25% are bigger companies in the process of being purchased by American companies, or actively seeking such a buyout.
All while most European governments sit idle, and let their entire economies be controlled by foreign actors. I’m sure no harm will come of this.
I’m not tech savvy on this level at all, but would this not also kill or seriously maim the US economy too?
No, they’d just block non-US internet traffic (& VPNs…)
But for many of these services the EU companies and people are paying customers for these services or revenue generating sources (ads etc). The EU is a massive market and source of income for tech companies surely. It’d be like shooting yourself in the leg just to shoot them in the foot. Nobody would win here.
That’s a business line of thinking… sanctions / government censorship overrides it. ( I agree, there’d be a LOT of shouting from the CEOs)
This is why nobody was fearing this before - there was never somebody in office willing to do something that stupid.
I wish I had extra upvotes for you.
Remember when Russia attacked the Ukraine? Within a few days visa and MasterCard had to withdraw from Russia, even though it cost these companies revenue.
Now imagine there is a new threat coming from the US. No matter whether it’s tariffs or Greenland. The threat alone that by disconnecting Europe from Microsoft 365 or AWS, effectively rendering the while European administration, both government and economy, inoperative would be sufficient for them to back down.
Even if that were the case, this administration would not care.
Well of course. But that would be yet another of Biden’s faults, right? Right?
Also tan suit Obama.
Something something Swiftboat
