The EU suffers from the double bind of being protectionist of its industries – that’s literally what it’s for – while at the same time explicitly allowing direct attacks on those industries and its single market because the US tech industry – protected by the US and their dominance over the global economy – has broadened the scope of its ambitions to include “everything, everywhere.” If the EU moves to protect their industries they are acting against the technopoly and US hegemony that frames their very understanding of the world. At the same time their very reason for existence is the protection of their local industries and market and allowing their destruction is unthinkable. Neither action is conceivable, hence the double bind. Psychologically, a double bind like this would feel as confusing as being told you have to bite your own arm because the arm misbehaving. Even if it’s correct, even if your arm is indeed misbehaving and biting it is indeed all you can do to stop it, the thought still has the flavour of madness.
Other countries and regions historically allied with the US are in a similar internal conflict.
Voters, labour, and industry increasingly demand checks on the US tech industry. Populist politicians speak out against social media platforms. Tech companies are compared directly to the tobacco industry. Right-wing nationalist calls for “sovereignty” are redefined to include technological autonomy.
At least that summary describes a dilemma that does not exist as there is a clear way out and the EU is actually investing a lot in exactly that. The chosen analogy can’t capture that or actually even misleads. You cannot slowly unscrew your arm and replace it with a new one.
The way out of course is creating or strengthening sovereign digital infrastructure. Sovereign alternatives to Visa/Mastercard are maybe 2 years away from full implementation, sovereign satellite communication too, the EU is finally also getting serious about regaining sovereignty in the software space, bit by bit. Things don’t need to be reinvented from scratch for that, Open Source is a strong launch base for that. France especially is laying the ground work for that.
Tight interdependencies can’t be undone over night without catastrophic consequences, but they can be losened, one by one. That process might be ridiculed by some, until it is progressed far enough to change the entire equation.
This disentanglement is only shortly mentioned in the article towards the end, as a future prospect but we are already in the middle of it, also in the EU