Tech Gets Real

Ditching US Tech Has To Be An Option

Tech Gets Real

Show Notes

Europe has talked about “tech sovereignty” from America before, but Donald Trump’s second term has made the issue an urgent one. Luckily, a time of massive flux in the tech industry has made it more viable than ever for the EU to declare independence from the US.

Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades. In TGR, I provide short, jargon-free guides to help you navigate the new AI era.

To contact me, please email [email protected] or connect on: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites

REFERENCES:

EU tech sovereignty summit in November https://www.politico.eu/article/france-germany-united-states-big-tech-sovereign-digital-transition/

Survey about Big Tech being more powerful than the EU https://peoplevsbig.tech/large-majority-of-french-german-and-spanish-public-back-tough-eu-stance-on-big-tech-despite-risk-to-trump-relations/

Snowden’s claims about intel sharing https://www.infoworld.com/article/2192246/nsa-created-european-bazaar-to-spy-on-eu-citizens-snowden-tells-european-parliam.html

Problems with Europe’s sovereign cloud https://eliatra.com/blog/the-sovereignty-illusion-why-awss-european-cloud-cannot-escape-us/

More from Tech Gets Real

Oct 15, 2026

European banks really do have to refund customers who lose money in phishing scams, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled in a Polish case. The CJEU’s decision is a big deal for phishing victims who until now have usually been forced to take the hit themselves.

Oct 6, 2026

Norway is about to ban camera-equipped smart glasses such as Meta AI Glasses from many public spaces, and a Dutch eyewear retailer is dropping the category from its lineup, because of social and legal pushback. Can a company like Meta, which has many privacy scandals under its belt and which is close to the Trump administration, get around this kind of resistance?

Sep 24, 2026

New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham used a major UN speech to announce a pushback against Russian online disinformation campaigns that fuel far-right unrest in the UK. We need to see the details, because there’s a risk of fueling far-right persecution claims if this is not handled with care.

Sep 18, 2026

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday proposed a wide-ranging “alliance for the future” between his country and the European Union. It was all about self-preservation in the face of Trump’s America – and a lot of it was about tech sovereignty, particularly regarding AI and its infrastructure.

Sep 10, 2026

Anthropic has not given UK and European AI officials access to Mythos 5.1, its latest powerful model, seemingly because the Trump administration won’t allow it. There’s no easy explanation for this – especially as OpenAI is being allowed to grant similar access to its latest model,

See all episodes →