this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2025
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'Europe must ban American Big Tech and create a European Silicon Valley' (www.tilburguniversity.edu)
submitted 1 day ago by Sunshine@lemmy.ca to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
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[โ€“] susurrus0@lemmy.zip 13 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Ban American big tech? Okay, makes sense.

Create a European Silicon Valley? I don't know about this one.

The reason China and the US are global leaders in technology is because of their complete disregard for human rights and the environment. Creating a "European Silicon Valley" would simply bring us down to their level, or at least closer. Mimicking America has never worked well for Europe. We need our own European systems born from our own European ideas.

[โ€“] Miaou@jlai.lu 4 points 8 hours ago

This is absolutely not true. Europeans not investing and selling off every bit of innovation they produce to american vulture capitalists is the reason we are behind.

Also what have tech companies to do with the environment? Sure now the AI BS is a strain on energy consumption, but it's not like EU started lagging only since 2022. China is doing generally much bettet wrt electrification than eg the Germans.

[โ€“] abcdqfr@lemmy.world 0 points 9 hours ago

like arguing for slave labor a la chinese labor market, to compete!! we cannot entertain a race to the bottom, that is already being done, as a species

[โ€“] VisionScout@lemmy.wtf 6 points 9 hours ago

I don't agree to ban it, since we would go stone age. But there should be incentives to use european alternatives.

[โ€“] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 15 points 17 hours ago

โ€˜It is not enough to import evil! We must manufacture evil here at home!โ€™

[โ€“] Pratai@lemmy.world 8 points 16 hours ago

This 100% needs to happen. America absolutely needs to be taken down several hundred notches.

[โ€“] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

It's good that something is finally being done.

Instead of just copying big tech from silicon fucking valley, we could also improve on it somewhat, such as making the software open source.

[โ€“] JargonWagon@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago

GDPR was a good move. Hopefully others are soon on the way.

[โ€“] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

So you all are hiring soon? Lol

[โ€“] wax@feddit.nu 45 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Open source and socialised software across the EU please, not predatory big tech companies.

[โ€“] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

what does "socialised software" mean?

[โ€“] Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 19 hours ago

Owned and operated by community at large, with the goal of bringing value for people, not for bringing people's money to shareholders

[โ€“] eletes@sh.itjust.works 1 points 16 hours ago

The EU should sponsor various projects or provide tax cuts to companies that contribute labor to projects. They don't have to take over the projects, just help them prosper for everyone.

[โ€“] toppy@lemy.lol 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

How will it work ? If there is no profit because of open source and socialised software. Then how will companies hire people. Already there are many open source softwares on the market like linus. Open source will not become big like USA silicon valley.

[โ€“] kadup@lemmy.world 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

We already have a gigantic ecosystem of libre solutions to many problems, from entire operating systems to document standards to media codecs to encryption libraries. Open source already won, there's nothing to be proven.

Nothing stops a government, much less a group as powerful as the EU block, to fund libre technology. It's an investment into a safer, more controllable and fair digital ecosystem, that will pay dividends when this same government isn't stuck paying an American company or having data stolen. There's no need for a profit.

Even then, you absolutely can turn a profit with libre software, especially if you have a massive political interest working against your competitors.

[โ€“] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

What if the government tells a social media site they have to ban people from criticizing them or they'll lose funding?

Open source sure, that's fine. But someone's gotta pay for running the servers and if the government can cut that funding they have influence over it. That's a level of government control over the media that's a little concerning.

Better to have the the government make regulations requiring companies to make it easy to switch to another company. Like changing to another phone company, you can keep the same number (because of regulations) so people can still call you without even knowing you changed companies even if they have a phone from a different manufacturer using a different phone company.

You can do the same with things like social media, just need to have regulations requiring protocols to allow people to change services easily and connect with other services so there's not a network effect making people stay on shit services because it's what all their friends use. People should own their data, own their contacts and companies should compete by providing better services rather than by making it difficult to leave the services they're currently on.

Handing over your date to the government isn't a better solution than handing it over to a private company. The real solution is to ensure people own their data.

[โ€“] Miaou@jlai.lu 1 points 8 hours ago

Newspapers predate the internet I've heard, and even European newspapers have online presence now. Why would any of that get worse with a more sovereign EU?

If you're talking social media, then more control is required. This is pretty much the only reason the topic is even brought up at all. I'd much rather have our courts control speech than Nazis.

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[โ€“] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Instead, there seems to be a promise to not tax or fine them, in addition to giving them encryption backdoors on its citizens, and beg to buy overpriced Nvidia chips to give it all to Big US tech owned skynet. Reward is 30% tariffs to US sales on everything.

[โ€“] vane@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I am old enough to remember Siemens SL45 mobile phone and Symbian but European politicians focused on killing those. If we see Big Tech in Europe it will be Social Credit System and Chinese style surveillance. Europe politics is corrupted to the ground. They say they hate corporations and take money from them after that.

[โ€“] Benedict_Espinosa@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

European politics is far from perfect, although it is arguably better and less corrupt than in the US now. But it was not politics that killed European mobile phone industry - it was competition along with mismanagement and miscalculations of the European mobile phone manufacturers. Symbian was just a weak and clumsy platform compared to iOS and Android, it could not compete in a changing market.

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[โ€“] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Yes. Also Silicon Valley is a wrong example.

Old Nokia is a good example, Acorn, ARM of old.

Except what those people want is exactly a second Silicon Valley, just loyal to them.

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[โ€“] silver_wings_of_morning@feddit.dk 17 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Starting with the assumption that the US does many technology related things better, we should just adopt a mantra of making second-best copies of whatever the US does better.

Catching up is always quicker and cheaper than being the first to get there.

Invest in copying.

[โ€“] tfm@europe.pub 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Even better, do it in the public! FOSS is the way to go

[โ€“] Lifter@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 20 hours ago

Yup. Just make the copying blatantly obvious and protect the new project from copyright/IP claims.

[โ€“] pathos@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

Finally, first real feasible comment about EU catching up to US and China. This is how countries like Korea, despite how tiny it is compared to the EU, still grow so well economically and stay #1 in various areas of competition. They play 'catch up then compete' game so well and are probably the best at it. They become #2 or top 5 or whatever in many things, synthesise them together to become #1. Even integrated solutions of these #2 offerings combined are what makes their packaged offerings so compelling.

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[โ€“] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 114 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (14 children)

In addition, we must work to create a European Big Tech industry.

yes, but also facepalm this is still missing the point

Big Tech industry

^ taps the sign above my head

THAT is the problem, yes the US version is one of the more aggressive cancers but recognize that the US is a product of the US mindset that worships big tech.

People are running out of water for their families because a category of techbro running my country consider the power hungry datacenters powering this AI "techboom" more important than human lives.

points at the sign

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[โ€“] Renohren@lemmy.today 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

This is all talk. The EU and European countries are articulating what they know their population and the EU tech sector wants them to do BUT in the end, they will do none of it. Maybe vote a few laws, fund a few cheap FOSS projects that will never truly be applied/ used by EU countries except for a handful of cities, public services. But it will remain a minority as long as the EU puts the interests of the financial sector above all others.

Talking spaces such as this lemmysub are places where we, the end users and creators can collaborate to pressure them to at least consider things and get out of this Trump/Xi dependency our politicians want for us.

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[โ€“] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 57 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

No Eurotechbro stuff, thanks.

European tech? Sure. But only if fully decentralised, peer to peer, FOSS, copyleft and all that.

And oh also, bars out fascists.

[โ€“] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 2 points 13 hours ago

And without surveillance and that surveillance capitalism that only helps fascists and people from Pinochet to Duterte to Trump to do human right violations. Europe has data protection because it has human rights, and it has human rights because our history has taught bitter lessons about totalitarism. We need a way forward - not back.

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[โ€“] FelixCress@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Why ban? Tax it.

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[โ€“] goldenquetzal@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Am American in tech. I would like to come help. Actively trying to get out of this country.

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[โ€“] mormund@feddit.org 51 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Can we not? Silicon Valley sucks and imo hasn't done anything innovative for a long time.

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[โ€“] Hirom@beehaw.org 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Better enforcment of GDPR and DSA may be enought to effectively ban big US tech without passing any new law.

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