this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025

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213

Trump can pull the plug on the internet, and Europe can’t do anything about it (www.politico.eu)

submitted 1 day ago by babysandpiper@sopuli.xyz to c/world@lemmy.world

80 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Trump is back — and with him, the risk that the U.S. could unplug Europe from the digital world.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House is forcing Europe to reckon with a major digital vulnerability: The U.S. holds a kill switch over its internet.

As the U.S. administration raises the stakes in a geopolitical poker game that began when Trump started his trade war, Europeans are waking up to the fact that years of over-reliance on a handful of U.S. tech giants have given Washington a winning hand.

The fatal vulnerability is Europe’s near-total dependency on U.S. cloud providers.

Cloud computing is the lifeblood of the internet, powering everything from the emails we send and videos we stream to industrial data processing and government communications. Just three American behemoths — Amazon, Microsoft, and Google — hold more than two-thirds of the regional market, putting Europe’s online existence in the hands of firms cozying up to the U.S. president to fend off looming regulations and fines.

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[–] r_deckard@lemmy.world 47 points 14 hours ago (4 children)

Talk about clickbait ...... Article title: trump can pull the plug on the internet and europe can't do anything about it (my emphasis) First line: the U.S. could unplug Europe from the digital world (not "pull the plug on the internet") And then further down: "The fatal vulnerability is Europe’s near-total dependency on U.S. cloud providers."

So first, it's "the internet", then it's "unplug europe from the digital world", then it's "europe's dependency on US cloud providers"

So it's NOT "the internet", and it's NOT "unplug europe", it's disconnect european customers from US cloud providers.

Methinks Monseiur Pollet doesn't understand very much about the internet.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 5 points 2 hours ago

Methinks Monseiur Pollet doesn't understand very much about the internet.

It's like tubes. With trucks in them. It's simple!

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

[–] Eximius@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

It's even less of a thing. Things like AWS have datacenters in Europe, where most of Europe-side of traffic is hosted. Even if Trump made executive decisions to stop any internets companies doing business in Europe, it would have ZERO impact on the subsidy. Any cloud issues would really only impact "vertical scaling cloud-native" bullshit software, there are plenty and most reasonable companies are based on more sane (and less expensive) hosting solutions, which are in-house European.

Takes a massive fool to think European companies are basing their data in US continent, where the ping would be >150ms, and speeds would be far slower and less manageable.

[–] valkyrieangela@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago

Takes a massive fool to think European companies are basing their data in US continent, where the ping would be >150ms, and speeds would be far slower and less manageable.

It's actually simpler than that: It's not in regulatory compliance. Cloud providers need to host their data centers in different regions because of geopolitical instability, including the distinct possibility of this scenario, among other localized regulatory factors. These companies may be headquartered in America but they still are at the whim of many different governments.

Source: I have an AWS certification

[–] dQw4w9WgXcQ@lemm.ee 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

But honestly, disconnection from the US cloud providers is a lot bigger than you seem to think. A ton of governmental services are hosted on US cloud providers. Pulling that plug would mean blackout for a crapload of governmental services, which we have grown to depend on.

[–] SloganLessons@lemmy.world 6 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

It would also mean a huge hit on their own tech sector, if not near wipeout.

It’s one of those situations that, sure, they could, just like a monkey could purposely snap the branch where he and his friend are sitting on and both fall.

As for Europe, yes, it would be a painful transition, but eventually it could build its own infrastructure anyway

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 hours ago

[–] MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 3 points 4 hours ago

eh, in the Netherlands we would just cut off all their datacenters, maybe even the internet hub we have to the US.
so go ahead

[–] CriticalMiss@lemmy.world 10 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Cloud computing can be replaced (albeit it’s a hard process, sorta like detox). Good luck starting an independent ICANN and DNS zones.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 8 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

It'd take some time to organise a replacement organisation but it's not like those systems collapse when the central service goes down. We do have our own root servers and the internet can survive a month or two of not being able to register new tlds or assign subnets.

On the flipside, I wonder how US multinationals would fare without SAP.

[–] Zenith@lemm.ee -1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

My partner is a primary architect of AWS to build a replacement the size and scope that could replace US cloud computing isn’t reasonable unless they already have been developing this for years behind the scenes. The people who understand these systems at scale are few and far between

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 5 points 10 hours ago

There's no "behind the scenes" there are plenty of EU-based cloud providers. Including SAP though that's not why I mentioned them.

[–] JennyLaFae@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 11 hours ago

I believe many EU nations are already divesting from US companies and products, both at governmental levels and citizen boycotts. I recently read one of the countries was switching their government's computers to linux/foss

[–] vane@lemmy.world 16 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I hope he will do it so EU politicians stop feeding foreign corporations with tax money.

[–] peteyestee@feddit.org 2 points 18 hours ago

Honestly you're probably right.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 177 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This sounds a lot like, “build your own servers and topple another US industry.”

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 81 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Another short-term decision by America could lead to more long-term loss of wealth and influence.

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 10 points 1 day ago

"Stop shooting ourselves in the feet!"

So many decisions being made are very isolationist, and that never works well for the one shutting everyone else out. But who looks at history, right?

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Honestly, as an American living in Silicon Valley, I would be overjoyed if Europe became the primary kickstarter for open source alternatives to the existing US corporate infrastructure, that bends to the knees of the Federal government. Even here at home, myself and some of my co-workers aren't too keen on the existing status quo tools because there are too many caveats - from rent seeking subscriptions to the inability to verify if something is tampered with.

In the same way Valve saw how having all their eggs in the Windows basket led them to dive head first into linux development, I hope the EU's realization of the risks in the US tech sector lead it to developing unified, well funded OSS alternatives. I would certainly install them.

[–] MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

as a European formerly living in silicon valley.. we are working on it. and thanks to the orange turd in charge it's been fast-tracked. and when all hell breaks loose, we'll just stop sending ASML machines your way. best of luck idiots (not all of you)

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Hey, just put the word out for my work visa, please! XD

[–] MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

they're expanding, so most likely hiring. the world can't get enough of the 2 nm chips (not much more smaller after that for probably a decade).
they're building machines as fast as they can. I'm a CNC machinist and have made plenty of parts for them and have friends that assemble cleanroom parts for them.
plenty of work to go around.
you don't even need to speak Dutch there, English is fine.
and guess what? we even have great public transportation.
come one come all, apply today!
and get away from that hellhole the US has become. it used to be us (one for all, all for one), now it's just them the elite.
I lived there 24 yrs, from the golden age of silicon valley (late 90s) to its inevitable enshittification. glad I got out before it's demise.

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I'm currently hosed by the fact that I am in the middle of completing my Electrical Engineeing degree (approx. 2 years left), and I don't believe my credits would be transferable to an institution across the Atlantic (never mind the cost, shudder), so I can't even think about escaping until at least 2027.

If there's a better way forward so I can safely leave the nation and still achieve my degree, I'm all ears, but at least to me it seems my hands are a bit tied.

[–] MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I'm not too knowledgable about schooling and transfer credits but I would def send a letter (or email) to ASML describing your current school (perhaps not political) situation and who knows, maybe they pay for the whole ride. paid learning is a thing here.
I believe as well visas for critical jobs. doesn't hurt to ask

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 112 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Misleading title. It's really about cloud services. And Europe is already working on making itself independent of American cloud services.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 14 points 1 day ago

Thanks for sparing me the clickbait

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[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 27 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

The US officially giving tech execs military ranks is.... interesting. One of the stronger reasons to avoid companies like Huawei, was that the CCP had direct military ties / agents working within Huawei. The argument in favour of US tech companies in comparison, was that while they may have agreements with the US military, they were at arms length. Now they aren't, and the rationale seems to be attempting to shift to "just trust us", while they openly start major wars/conflicts and support genocidal actions in the middle east.

idk. If I were involved in the decision making for any critical area, I'd avoid the hell out of foreign controlled anything in my regular stacks at this point. Even if it means you have some efficiency hits until there may be an in-country provider available. It wouldn't matter who the other country is at this point, as the US going awol is something most wouldn't have 'bet' on like a decade ago, but here we are.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 15 hours ago

I'm more shocked that Europeans trusted the US that much knowing how goddamned stupid people are here. We were already an oligarchy 10 years ago.

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 10 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I work for a publicly traded company.

We couldn't switch away from Microsoft if we wanted to because integrating everything with Azure and O365 is the cheapest solution in the short term, ergo has the best quarterly ROI.

I don't think the shareholders give a rat's ass about data sovereignty if it means a lower profit forecast. It'd take legislative action for us to move away from an all-Azure stack.

And yes, that sucks big time. If Microsoft stops playing nice with the EU we're going to have to pivot most of our tech stack on a moment's notice.

[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 17 hours ago

Yep one of the big drivers is flexibility in capex vs opex. They’ll shape the contract whichever way you want but on prem is straight to capex. I think. I’m not an accountant.

[–] peteyestee@feddit.org 6 points 18 hours ago

It's literally organized crime.

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 44 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Just some stupid doom bait.

If it would get to cable cutting between US and Europe then we have much bigger problems than slow web apps. If Europe would ever get to that it definitely has enough cloud providers for essential services. Around 90% of all bandwidth is entertainment.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

who said slow web apps. EU hosting providers could step in probably, but where is exactly all the data stored currently? even assuming that most orgs do proper, working backups, restoring them and setting up their systems for the new providers would still tame a lot of time

[–] kungen@feddit.nu 8 points 1 day ago

where is exactly all the data stored currently?

Hopefully in the EU, as the EU-US DPF is garbage and should be repealed just like the previous "Privacy Shield" attempts.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 64 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Ya ok but this isn't a doomsday thing, we used to build our own servers before and lots of people know how to do it still.

All AWS and the like do is remove the hardware for the consumer and add some APIs.

Doesn't sound as scary to me as the article paints. The only hard part would be the migration 😅

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Yeah. That's literally the whole point of "the cloud" it can be anywhere.

The EU has lots of places with available renewable energy.

Hook up a couple servers to some dams. With "free" electricity it'll be almost impossible to not end up being cheaper than Amazon in the long run.

Like, I'm struggling to see how this would be a bad thing long term. Relying on American corporations just isn't a rational choice anymore

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[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure all three of those companies host server farms in Europe. I doubt they would give them up just to fluff Trump.

[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

MS pulled access to the azure environment of a (Russian owned) bank in NL and despite NL court orders asking for the data to be made accessible, it took diplomacy and a US court order to get access. This was not during trump admin.

We’ve been saying “this would never happen” and trump admin has slowly been shifting the Overton window.

[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

In that case they didn't want to risk liability. They're not going to do something guaranteed to lose them lots of money just to make daddy Trump happy.

[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago (2 children)

All that would do is get Jeff Bezos to hire a hitman to take out Trump.

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 45 points 1 day ago

I’m not hearing a problem here

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[–] Bwaz@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Time for EU to start a new web, WWWUS. World-Wide-Without-....

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

WWWEU.. Pronounced as "Wii U". 💅

[–] nialv7@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I hope this means people finally start to see the danger of centralization.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 15 hours ago

I can't convince a single person to get off Facebook and stop using Gmail.

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