Internet Services: Vowing for an European change in times of a world going down the drain

Admittedly, the term „Digital Sovereignty“ isn’t new when it comes to hosting or consuming services abroad. With the latest events in America, the ever-increasing pace at which the country is being ruined, the thoughts of leaving NATO and the UN and the sycophantic behavior towards Russia, things are about to change in the United States - forever. With the escalation in the White House, with the insulting of Volodymyr Selenskyj in a way that no statesman and no sane person can imagine, the so-called ”POTUS“ aka ”Krasnov" has not only gambled with Ukraine’s future, but has definitely shown that the new world order is different from anything we may have imagined.

For the time being, we’re mostly dependent on US-products, especially Cloud services. “Google-ing” is a synonym for searching, Meta-polluted platforms dominate our digital lifestyle. The Washington Post doesn’t support free speech anymore. Even Apple, my beloved company from Cupertino, not only sponsored the inauguration of the Orange Goblin in the form of Tim Cook donating $1 million, but also bowed down to the new dictator of the USA and his sick pals with this move. The old black and white has blurred and although there is always more grey than just plain black and white, the world has become more complicated these days. Personally, I started my journey away from most big tech stuff years ago, and ditching all those services run by Mark Zuckerberg and his crooks was just one of them. Anyway, getting rid of anything run by companies within reach of the new American “leadership” is quite difficult and, depending on your personal needs and workflows, can be an enormous task coupled with a lot of inconvenience.

There ARE alternatives, lots of them. European citizens can and must think about the possibility of Silicon Valley pulling the kill switch, just press it hard when the orange goblin in the White House wants something done, for whatever it’s worth. Do your cloud files really need to be stored overseas? Can’t you host your email on infrastructure other than Redmond’s? Wouldn’t you rather have an open solution than a digital walled garden? Do you still need to use WhatsApp instead of alternatives from Europe or NGOs - imagine how critically debated the surveillance activities in Eastern Europe were during the Cold War: Today we willingly accept that Big Tech can theoretically intercept all our communications in messenger apps - how wrong does that sound? Do Android phones need their connection to Mountain View or do similar OS solutions like GrapheneOS with alternative app stores offer a worthy alternative? And, yes, does your iDevice need to use every feature of Apple’s iCloud? Do we need US-based providers to build our IaaS platforms or (depending on requirements and complexity) are European hosters also suitable? Find technical alternatives on European Alternatives!

Now, this is the technical side of the medal. As a customer, you can think twice before renewing a particular service. Your Amazon Prime subscription is coming to an end? Consider cancelling! Think about your shopping preferences and whether you really need next-day delivery or not - there are European alternatives to Amazon’s store! Google Maps may be the way to go when it comes to navigation, but OpenStreet Maps can be just as good - without selling your data or permanently tracking you. Don’t want to keep putting your code on GitHub and make it easier for Microsoft to access it? German Codeberg might be an alternative. And even if you want to get rid of sweet drinks, Fritz Kola could be your way. So the dependency on US goods and services is still there, but with every single choice there is a chance to turn the wheel in a direction that puts Europe first again!

Why don’t we go MEGA? Make Europe great again! For inspiration, just go to “Buy European Made” and see what alternatives you have. With each and every one of them, European customers can now take their stand in a trade war that has only just begun.

With all this in mind, it’s time for Europe to cut the knots and dependencies on digital services hosted across the ocean. It won’t be easy, and we’ve all gotten so comfortable and used to it, but as decades of support and friendship are wasted one-way, we can still raise our voices in this new real world and become independent. It’s not easy, it will take time, needs yet another approach towards the infrastructure and it won’t work by 100% instantly - at least not yet - but we still have options. If nothing else works these days, being a customer and showing the way can at least be a commercial sign these days!