France dumps Zoom and Teams as Europe seeks digital autonomy from the US
by AareyBaba on 2/3/2026, 4:39:18 PM
https://apnews.com/article/europe-digital-sovereignty-big-tech-9f5388b68a0648514cebc8d92f682060
Comments
by: input_sh
Worth pointing out: France is not <i>adopting</i> existing open source software, they're building their own software and releasing it under the MIT licence. Most of it (or all of it?) is Django backend + React frontend (using a custom-built UI kit).<p>Home page for the entire suite (in French) with some screenshots: <a href="https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/" rel="nofollow">https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/</a><p>Code bases are on GitHub and they use English there: <a href="https://github.com/suitenumerique/" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/suitenumerique/</a><p>Dev handbook (in English): <a href="https://suitenumerique.gitbook.io/handbook" rel="nofollow">https://suitenumerique.gitbook.io/handbook</a><p>Not French and I can't say I personally tried deploying any of them, but I've been admiring their efforts from afar for a while now.
2/3/2026, 7:18:53 PM
by: pelagicAustral
Refreshing. No more Teams? Sounds like a dream... Of all the crapware I am forced to work with, Teams really pushes the envelope in every single negative way conceivable. I think I have more love for SharePoint than Teams, and that is a massive concession.
2/3/2026, 5:29:51 PM
by: larsnystrom
There seems to be a huge business opportunity in Europe right now, to sell support and customization of open source software to government players. Has anyone heard about a European company that’s been successful in this area?
2/3/2026, 5:55:49 PM
by: quadrifoliate
This needs to go much, <i>much</i> further before it is even mildly effective. The EU has a population of ~450 million (more than the US) and no significant large technology companies. They are largely dependent on US Big Tech as a population.<p>I love that there is a lot more <i>enthusiasm</i> about OSS adoption within EU software devs, but at a population or government level there doesn't appear to be any coherent strategy to gradually replace US tech other than these knee-jerk headliner moves that don't move the needle much.<p>As a software consumer I would love it if there were open-first software standards adopted within this large of a population that would force US Big Tech to actually compete rather than rest on their monopoly power. But I am pretty skeptical and pessimistic about this actually being able to happen, given the historical failures of the EU.
2/3/2026, 6:48:42 PM
by: spicyusername
Such a shame that so many U.S. citizens do not see the ramifications of their political decisions.<p>Each one of these actions is a stepping stone the world is taking as a direct consequence of U.S. political negligence. And however difficult it was to render this consequence, it will be tenfold, or hundredfold, as difficult to reverse course.
2/3/2026, 5:32:12 PM
by: firefoxd
After an acquisition, we are transitioning from google meet and slack, to Teams. I used to hate slack so much with their random features popping left and right and menus moving around. Oh I didn't know how good we had it.<p>Slack is a delight compared to Teams. And I'm not even alone in this, everyone is still using slack until it gets pried off our hands. So help me God anyone mentions Copilot one more time...
2/3/2026, 5:54:31 PM
by: tyre
As an American, this is awesome to see.<p>We should pay penalties for our abandonment of good faith global engagement. And economic damage really is the key to the heart of these United States of Three Corporations in a Trench Coat.<p>We’ve seen companies and CEOs paying millions in bribes to be close to the president. Now this aligns their financial interests with shifting our foreign policy. Not how it ought to work, but it’s the world we have.
2/3/2026, 5:50:55 PM
by: BurningFrog
Note that this is only about European <i>governments</i> choosing to not use US software.
2/3/2026, 5:48:48 PM
by: hvb2
Conversation a few days ago: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46767668">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46767668</a>
2/3/2026, 5:32:32 PM
by: jt2190
> The French government… announced last week that 2.5 million civil servants would stop using video conference tools from U.S. providers — including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex and GoTo Meeting — by 2027 and switch to Visio, a homegrown service.
2/3/2026, 5:58:05 PM
by: stronglikedan
lol, "Europe" isn't seeking anything of the sort. France maybe, and a couple other countries, but very, very far from the whole of Europe. And even then, only a handful of people relative to the whole country. This won't even cause a blip on a balance sheet.<p>What are they gonna switch to? I'll bet it ends up being a fork of Zoom or Teams. It's all just theater.
2/3/2026, 6:17:10 PM
by: Brian_K_White
I would not have predicted that my country's government going bad would have such a positive side-effect on the world of software and network services.
2/3/2026, 5:51:11 PM
by: jgbuddy
It's all fun and games until there's an outage, nothing screams efficient like a state-owned tech company
2/3/2026, 5:58:24 PM
by: wateralien
Almost all businesses need email, contacts, calendars, live chat, video calls, docs, sheets, and presentations. Ideally all linked. Where is the open source foundation for this package that everyone needs?
2/3/2026, 6:09:09 PM
by: 999900000999
Good. Open source solutions exist and need investment.<p>Hopefully the EU as a whole can rally behind this.
2/3/2026, 5:53:40 PM
by: stopbulying
Are those US software firms still obligated to comply with EU restrictions and legal demands if they are banned/barred/fascisticly_denied_the_option_to_compete by one or more EU territories?
2/3/2026, 5:55:01 PM
by: pcj-github
Good for them! As a US citizen, I am trying to do the same. Closing my gmail account and moving to ProtonMail.
2/3/2026, 5:41:47 PM
by: rayiner
In favor of what? I’m all for economic nationalism, but you have to have competitive home grown alternatives. Does Europe have them? Or are they going to shoot themselves in the foot productivity-wise by boycotting the best products?
2/3/2026, 5:53:11 PM
by: kkfx
EU governments don't want to learn one thing: you don't replace one dictator with another. The specific case says little, France has been developing "La Suite" for YEARS, Italy had experimented with Jitsi Meet and Big Blue Button at GARR during the COVID era, but what the EU wants is to create EU GAFAMs, whereas what we need, and not just in the EU, is FLOSS, self-hosting, desktop computing. This, however, is not welcome, starting with eIDAS 2.0 which pushes for a "super-sovereign" app-wallet for the notoriously sovereign Android and iOS instead of smart cards and USB readers that we've had for years and that various countries have used for years to log into online banking and, more recently, to sign documents.<p>The substantial point is that they don't want freedom, they only want to steal like others steal, to do business like others do business, instead of doing something different.
2/3/2026, 6:48:51 PM
by: lencastre
it’s gotta be too good to be true, but at least one major economy taking the lead, imagine
2/3/2026, 5:50:18 PM
by: FpUser
Long time overdue. It is so stupid to rely on a single country in so many areas
2/3/2026, 6:06:12 PM
by: ChrisArchitect
[dupe] Discussion from a week ago: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46767668">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46767668</a>
2/3/2026, 6:01:22 PM
by: lenerdenator
If only they'd taken the same approach with Russian natural gas in 2008.
2/3/2026, 5:54:42 PM
by: j_maffe
Honest to god, everything that Trump is doing might actually end up being that the world becomes a better place. The US hegemony really ran its course.
2/3/2026, 5:40:16 PM
by: lefstathiou
As an American, I will echo Trump's speech at Davos. We want strong allies, not vassals. Be capable of building your own EVs, your own rockets, your own fighter jets, your own subway systems, your own zoom alternatives, your own search engines, your own operating systems, etc etc.<p>Make Europe great again. Bring back creativity. Bring back jobs. Build a talented workforce that stays local instead of migrating to the US. Be independent. Stand tall. Do all of these things and preferrably do them now.<p>America and China's rise shouldnt be zero sum. It should lift the world. Europe forged the path we all follow. Come back to it.
2/3/2026, 6:00:43 PM
by: clot27
so is there any open source alternative to these meeting apps? (selfhostable)
2/3/2026, 5:38:02 PM
by: chaostheory
Imo this was inevitable even without Trump. He just massively accelerated it.<p>The end of globalism also marks the end of the global internet and the transition to regional internets.
2/3/2026, 6:21:22 PM