Google has criticized the European Union’s intentions to achieve digital sovereignty through open-source software. The company warned that Brussels’ policies aimed at reducing dependence on American tech companies could harm competitiveness. According to Google, the idea of replacing current tools with open-source programs would not contribute to economic growth.
Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs and chief legal officer, warned of a competitive paradox that Europe is facing. According to the Financial Times, he said that creating regulatory barriers would be harmful in a context of rapid technological advancement. His remarks came just days after the European Commission concluded a public consultation assessing the transition to open-source software.
Google’s chief legal officer clarified that he is not opposed to digital sovereignty, but recommended making use of the “best technologies in the world.” Walker suggested that American companies could collaborate with European firms to implement measures ensuring data protection. Local management or servers located in Europe to store information are among the options.
The EU is preparing a technological sovereignty package aimed at eliminating dependence on third-party software, such as Google’s. After reviewing proposals, it concluded that reliance on external suppliers for critical infrastructure entails economic risks and creates vulnerabilities. The strategy focuses not only on regulation but also on adopting open-source software to achieve digital sovereignty.
According to Google, this change would represent a problem for users. Walker argues that the market moves faster than legislation and warns that regulatory friction will only leave European consumers and businesses behind in what he calls “the most competitive technological transition we have ever seen.” As it did with the DMA and other laws, Google is playing on fear. Kent Walker suggested that this initiative would stifle innovation and deny people access to the “best digital tools.”
The promotion of open-source software aims to break dependence on foreign suppliers, especially during a period of instability caused by the Trump administration. The European Union has highlighted the risks of continuing under this system and proposes that public institutions should have full control over their own technology.
According to a study on the impact of open-source software, the European Commission found that it contributes between €65 billion and €95 billion annually to the European Union’s GDP. The executive body estimates that a 10% increase in contributions to open-source software would generate an additional €100 billion in growth for the bloc’s economy.
What a preposterous argument google is making. Yes it stifles innovation having open source software and not licensing it from the soul-less mega corporation with the US government willing to break kneecaps for it (if they pay up,) that we know helps the US steal information, and themselves steals every big of information they can get their grasping hands on, both legally and illegally.
Yes Europe wouldn’t have the best tools, if they weren’t beholden to a mega corporation that could use the out of control drunk with power US to back up their market interests! Talk about an incredible argument. We will see, I bet europe caves to US pressure, as they did all last year, and just goes along with tech plans to bring the trojan horses of chatcontrol and age checks inside the walls of liberal democracies, to ultimately make secret social scores to determine every part of how a person is treated from business to government. Those decisions made by the worst people in the world like Palantir in cooperation with politicians.
As to keeping data in europe so the us couldn’t access it, ha. What were you born yesterday? Google is beholden to the US that can make or break them in a thousand million ways. They will find a way, (they already have,) to grab all the data, stored in europe or whereever. You know it, same way we knew before snowden the feds were grabbing everything they could get their grasping hands on.
Because who is going to stop them?