Europe has lost the internet, Belgium’s cyber security chief warns
Europe has effectively lost the internet, according to Miguel De Bruycker, head of Belgium’s Centre for Cybersecurity, because it still relies on cloud services and platforms dominated by US technology giants.
If anyone had any doubt whether the US President Donald Trump’s administration would blatantly pressure Europe into doing away with trying to curb harmful content and misinformation, its actions late last year spoke louder than words.
Regulating American tech giants is a big no-no for US right-wing policy makers who, right before Christmas, slapped visa bans on five prominent Europeans, accusing the EU of censoring free speech and unfairly targeting US companies.
EU leaders reacted furiously: who wouldn’t when Thierry Breton, the former EU interior markets commissioner, is now being treated the same way as an ISIS terrorist or a narco-trafficker?
But, essentially, they can’t do anything to retaliate because the internet is controlled by US tech giants, and European digital sovereignty isn’t actually real.
In fact, Europe is so far behind in digital infrastructure that it has effectively “lost the internet,” De Bruycker, director of the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium, told Financial Times, adding that it was “currently impossible” to store data fully in Europe.
That’s because US firms such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google now dominate digital infrastructure and, together, hold a commanding share of the European cloud market. This, of course, leaves the bloc vulnerable to external pressures.
“We’ve lost the whole cloud. We have lost the internet, let’s be honest,” De Bruycker said.
“If I want my information 100 per cent in the EU, keep on dreaming. You’re setting an objective that is not realistic.”
In a cybersecurity forum in Brussels, De Bruycker additionally explained: “We have lost the internet – not in the literal sense, but in our ability to govern, secure, and shape a digital ecosystem that is sovereign, resilient and competitive.”
According to the expert, European law enforcement and critical services increasingly depend on systems designed and controlled outside the EU, limiting strategic autonomy and exposing the bloc to geopolitical and cybersecurity risks.
Plus, US legislation such as the Cloud Act and FISA 702 can obligate American companies to produce data held on servers anywhere in the world.
“Everybody was supporting the Airbus initiatives decades ago. We need the same initiative on [an] EU level in the cyber domain,"
Miguel De Bruycker.
This means that even data stored physically in the EU may fall under foreign legal jurisdiction. European leaders have long sought to address this extraterritorial reach, but progress has been slow and uneven.
What should Europe do? Perhaps surprisingly, De Bruycker thinks the EU should think again about legislation such as the AI Act because it was “blocking” much-needed innovation – and innovating is the only way to build strength and compete with the Americans.
He thinks Airbus, the aircraft maker jointly set up by European countries, is a great example: “Everybody was supporting the Airbus initiatives decades ago. We need the same initiative on [an] EU level in the cyber domain.”
“Instead of putting that focus on how we can stop the US ‘hyperscalers,’ maybe we put our energy into building up something by ourselves,” said De Bruycker.
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