Do not invite big-tech to join your digital autonomy discussion - Bert Hubert's writings
a day ago
- US big tech companies (Microsoft, Google, Amazon) should not be invited to discussions on European digital autonomy because their interests conflict with reducing dependencies.
- Their representatives often repeat misleading talking points, such as claims that they can protect European data from US laws, despite counterexamples like Microsoft complying with US sanctions against the ICC.
- Including them wastes meeting time on debunking their narratives and creates a false impression of legitimacy through 'both-sidesing' the issue.
- Big tech's goal is to preserve their market share, so they cannot genuinely help Europe achieve sovereignty; their participation only raises doubts or offers pseudo-solutions.
- Analogous to excluding tobacco and alcohol companies from health discussions, big tech should be excluded from autonomy-focused events due to inherent conflicts of interest.
- Beware of European industry groups or think tanks that have been co-opted by big tech funding.