MEP Alexandra Geese argues that Europe needs its own infrastructure, social networks, and software. Rising US authoritarianism means the clock is ticking.

[Alexandra Geese in Tech Policy Press]

More on European data sovereignty from Alexandra Geese, a German Green Party member who has served as a member of the European Parliament since 2019.

In an environment shaped by the Trump administration and far-reaching legislation like the CLOUD Act, the argument is obvious:

“Europe needs independent European infrastructure now—especially home-grown social networks that preserve a level playing field for information, safeguard media freedom and guarantee genuine freedom of speech, including the right to access facts instead of being fed lies and propaganda.”

The need for data storage and application services that can handle sensitive information beyond the reach of America’s jurisdiction has been spoken about quite a bit, but it’s interesting to see politicians begin to talk more about social networks and social media. Geese calls out Eurosky, an attempt to build an AT protocol PDS on European infrastructure — and, of course, Mastodon is a German non-profit.

It’s interesting that part of her argument is that European alternatives won’t suppress clickthroughs to journalistic media in the way algorithmic social networks and AI-driven Google search results have.

“As Google’s ad monopoly devours media revenues and AI tools harvest content for data, journalism’s financial model crumbles at an alarming rate. When media shift their output to European platforms, advertising dollars will flow, creating mass-appeal services for 450 million citizens.”

While Geese focuses on Europe’s economic and cultural independence, I’d extend the argument: the threat isn’t just monopolies, it’s authoritarianism. X, LinkedIn, Meta’s properties, and the US TikTok consortium have all made financial and strategic deals with the current administration. That doesn’t just create risk for vulnerable groups; it carries risk for any country that might be competitive with the United States, or anyone inside the country who might be considered at odds with current policy.

If European investment continues to be diverted to decentralized networks and open technologies that allow for greater data sovereignty, everybody wins. We all get to use technology designed to be run on our own infrastructure, on our own terms. In turn, that will help create a more free and open internet — which benefits all of us.

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