Previously used link: https://archive.ph/ICJZZ
Until now, the EU has allowed a majority of countries to rely on American big tech companies for communication and storage of sensitive data. For example, many universities across Europe rely on Google or Microsoft for email services, research data storage, and department communication. Similarly, many of them write their research using Microsoft Word, which could be used by these big companies to train their own AI models.
A majority of regular citizens rely on Meta for instant messaging apps (WhatsApp), Facebook, Instagram, but also on X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok. None of these apps are properly regulated even with EU's efforts, leaving people unshielded to other states' attempts at polarization. There is also the problem of mass profiling of users, which is used to supply targeted advertisements and sometimes influence public opinion on certain topics (cough Musk tweaking the Twitter algorithm to promote AfD cough).
The article that I supplied focuses mainly on the aspect of maintaining data privacy when our data is harvested by outside entities. However, this is, in my opinion, a horrible approach. We need to move everything ASAP to open source alternatives, and preferably EU based ones. Some attempts at this have been previously made in Germany, which should give hope to other countries in the EU.
The cost of moving away from Google/Microsoft tech stacks will be a drop in the bucket compared to the wealth that these companies extract from EU. Similarly, offering alternatives to social media like Friendica, Mastodon, Pixelfed, Lemmy, and perhaps PeerTube, would be a huge win against disinformation and propaganda from other countries. We should also push for instant messaging platforms like SimpleX that do not rely on Google's proprietary Push Notification services, and perhaps deGoogled Android devices.
If the recent events are not a catalyst to push everyone away from US software in the EU, I do not know what else will. Do you think that this would be possible at all?
I have switched to all of the things you mentioned a while back and never looked back, but it’s impossible to get friends of family to so the same. For them web search == google, browsers == google chrome, facebook is the only existing internet service and the same with whatsapp.
I’m afraid that, no matter how hard we try, we will always and forever be a part of a lonely niche.
edit: wording
Yeah I’ve also switched over most things but it seems like most other people aren’t interested in doing the same. Even Lemmy is fairly inactive compared to Reddit