Should Europe boycott US technology over Greenland, and is this possible?

As US President Donald Trump continues to demand that Greenland be placed under his country’s control, European countries are pursuing a range of responses, from intensifying their military presence on Danish-owned territory to imposing economic sanctions on the United States. The extraordinary threat to the world order has Europeans wondering whether it is time to wean themselves off the global dominance of American technology – but is that even possible?

Individuals who want to boycott American technology are going to have a tough time. For example, if you ditch your iPhone in favor of a South Korean Samsung phone, you’ll still be involved in the Android ecosystem, which is tied to US-based Google. Some Chinese phone makers such as Huawei have developed their own operating systems, but this may involve swapping one geopolitical giant for another.

And it’s not just about devices. Major social networks, from Facebook and Instagram to Snapchat and X, are based in the US, as are video streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video. Even the rare platform not operated from the US, TikTok, has been dragged into its control, thanks Trump-backed deal. Perhaps the only major non-American platform that people use on a daily basis is Spotify, which was founded in Sweden.

Europe has some alternatives to big tech products: for example, French companies have developed a search engine called Qwant and a ChatGPT alternative called Mistral. As for smartphones, your options are very limited and far from the mainstream: Liberux Nexx is a Spanish smartphone running Linux, while German company Volla sells one running its own operating system. Neither is commonly used. But beyond individuals, can governments and companies do anything to break away from US technological dominance – and should they?

“It’s crazy that almost all public services in Europe run on American platforms like Microsoft or Google,” he says. Tommaso Valetti At Imperial College London, United Kingdom. He says current arguments about Greenland’s future should clarify ideas. Obviously you cannot replace that overnight, but this is precisely why Europe must start building alternatives.

Some European countries were already considering their options before the recent Greenland crisis. In november, Key figures at the Berlin summit Seven points were agreed upon to reduce dependence on non-European technology companies, while supporting companies in the region. One initiative is known as eurostackHe argues that Europe should “buy, sell and finance” domestic cloud computing, artificial intelligence and connectivity services, in part because… Only 1 percent of the European Commission’s cloud package – The hardware and software underpinning its digital services – currently runs on a local provider.

Proponents say building a sovereign digital pool would be costly — perhaps running into the trillions of euros — but necessary to avoid a future where a hostile U.S. administration could effectively flip a digital kill switch on European infrastructure. Simply basing our technology choices on costs and the previous open market, without considering other aspects such as national security, “is becoming increasingly naive,” he says. Christina Irion At the University of Amsterdam.

However, change will be difficult, since many corporate and public sector IT systems rely on companies like Microsoft and Google for their day-to-day operations, he says. Chloe Tiffan At the European Center for Development Policy Management, a research center in the Netherlands. “People are already built into their ecosystems, so offering people an attractive alternative is not easy, and the policies of the past 20 years have not helped achieve that,” she says.

Building major infrastructure also takes time, especially in a fragmented and slow-moving market like Europe. For this reason, some European policymakers may wonder whether cutting ties is worth the effort, given that Trump would have to be out of office by 2029. “I actually think nothing will happen fast enough to have any impact,” says Irion.

But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen, largely because, politics aside, relying on companies in other countries in such a geopolitically turbulent world isn’t the smartest idea, Tevan says.

“It won’t be easy, but doing nothing means giving up,” Valetti says. “Starting now is the only way to have real choices in the future.”