Democracy Requires Owning the Stack

Updated: 2025.10.14 7D ago 2 sources
Europe’s sovereignty cannot rest on rules alone; without domestic cloud, chips, and data centers, EU services run on American infrastructure subject to U.S. law. Regulatory leadership (GDPR, AI Act) is hollow if the underlying compute and storage are extraterritorially governed, making infrastructure a constitutional, not just industrial, question. — This reframes digital policy from consumer protection to self‑rule, implying that democratic legitimacy now depends on building sovereign compute and cloud capacity.

Sources

Beijing Issues Documents Without Word Format Amid US Tensions
msmash 2025.10.14 73% relevant
China’s Ministry of Commerce distributing rare‑earth control documents solely in WPS Office format exemplifies state assertion of control over the software layer of its 'stack,' reducing reliance on U.S. platforms (Microsoft Word) and using technical standards to project sovereignty and limit extraterritorial influence.
Reclaiming Europe’s Digital Sovereignty
Francesca Bria 2025.10.02 100% relevant
The essay cites Europe owning just 4% of global cloud and notes U.S. CLOUD Act reach over EU users, while contrasting this with U.S. 'Stargate' and China’s Digital Silk Road.
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