The UK and EU Must Stop Relying on US Internet Technology and Build Their Own
With the US threatening war over the acquisition of Greenland, it is important to reflect on our vulnerability to US technological hegemony.
With a senile orange sex offender in the White House looking to start a war with the EU over Greenland, it is important that the UK and EU finally recognise the urgent need to move away from the US internet infrastructure and technology. UK and EU digital public infrastructure runs overwhelmingly on American technology. This dependency is not only an economic issue, where US companies collect rent from European consumers and capitalists just for existing on these platforms or services, it has become a democratic, legal, and geopolitical vulnerability.
Growing political tensions prove that the US must now be considered an unreliable ally. Trump has demonstrated that he will use whatever tools he has available to him to achieve his political agenda, and therefore, we must not rule out his willingness to use our infrastructure vulnerabilities and data against us. The UK government has signed numerous contracts with US technology company, Palantir, despite fears that it will give the US government power over our data. The Swiss are smart enough to recognise this and refused to sign contracts with Palantir for this very reason. We have placed ourselves in a precarious situation and the sooner we cancel these contracts the better.
US technology companies now threaten the political stability of our democracies, and our politicians are terrified at the consequences of regulating their enormous power. Powerful Hitler fan and child pornography distributor, Elon Musk, is seemingly able to endlessly interfere with our national political environment with absolute immunity. Even his refusal to prevent child pornography being distributed on his platform has only led to an Ofcom investigation, with there likely being no consequences owing to our government’s fear of retribution from the Trump administration.
Building a new, non-US technological infrastructure will not be cheap, but it is essential. Fair redistribution and introducing proper taxation on the wealthiest will bring in revenues that would enable us to build this infrastructure, create jobs, and upskill our workforce. UK and EU cities that have been left behind could be reinvigorated with investment to build the new technological infrastructure and companies we will need to be self-reliant from US technological hegemony. The profits generated from these companies will then be redistributed into local economies and not siphoned off to US billionaires who actively seek to destabilise democracies.
Greater Manchester could be a leading region in this regard with the building of Atom Valley and the Northern Powerhouse Rail project, the North of England could become a hub of innovation and creation in EU and UK technological independence. In a globalised economy, it is impossible to detach from the rest of the world, and it is not desirable to pursue insular politics, but we need to be more resilient and resistant to the unfortunate growth of authoritarianism. The EU is not perfect, but the more democracy there is, the more resilient we are to the fascism we are seeing in the US.
