"If Europe hopes to safeguard its own sovereignty and values, it must strategically decouple and dramatically lessen its dependence on companies that are either seeking confrontation or are otherwise vulnerable to being weaponised by Washington.
Silicon Valley’s top brass have proven increasingly willing to bend the knee to Trump’s regime. Take Sam Altman of OpenAI. While Altman has voiced concerns about the dangers of artificial intelligence, he has also supported a deregulated tech environment under the new president — one that prioritises corporate interests over public safety.
Then, consider the actions of Google. In an apparent attempt to appease Trump’s revisionist worldview, Google quickly renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”. This gesture goes beyond mere corporate branding; it signals a deeper complicity with an administration that actively seeks to rewrite international norms.
Joel Kaplan, Meta’s global affairs chief, has publicly stated that the company counts on the White House to challenge European governments it felt discriminated by. Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, has lobbied Trump to fight European competition fines in a bid to cast them as punitive trade measures.
Alex Karp, chief executive of Palantir, is perhaps the most explicit in expressing his allegiance. While he backed Kamala Harris for president last year, he is proudly aligned with the US and happy to “scare enemies and on occasion kill them”. "
https://www.ft.com/content/30d6f79f-d1ee-49dc-bff5-719f18c1a9e5
#EU #BigTech #USA #DigitalSovereignty
Silicon Valley’s top brass have proven increasingly willing to bend the knee to Trump’s regime. Take Sam Altman of OpenAI. While Altman has voiced concerns about the dangers of artificial intelligence, he has also supported a deregulated tech environment under the new president — one that prioritises corporate interests over public safety.
Then, consider the actions of Google. In an apparent attempt to appease Trump’s revisionist worldview, Google quickly renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”. This gesture goes beyond mere corporate branding; it signals a deeper complicity with an administration that actively seeks to rewrite international norms.
Joel Kaplan, Meta’s global affairs chief, has publicly stated that the company counts on the White House to challenge European governments it felt discriminated by. Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, has lobbied Trump to fight European competition fines in a bid to cast them as punitive trade measures.
Alex Karp, chief executive of Palantir, is perhaps the most explicit in expressing his allegiance. While he backed Kamala Harris for president last year, he is proudly aligned with the US and happy to “scare enemies and on occasion kill them”. "
https://www.ft.com/content/30d6f79f-d1ee-49dc-bff5-719f18c1a9e5
#EU #BigTech #USA #DigitalSovereignty
Europe’s dependence on US tech is a critical weakness
In order to protect their sovereignty, the continent’s leaders must invest in a digital ecosystem independent of AmericaMarietje Schaake (Financial Times)
