No more zoom for French officials: France to use local alternative to US tech

PARIS – French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced on Jan 29 that government officials will stop using American-owned video conference software in favour of a new French-made application, in the latest move by European leaders to reduce their dependence on US digital infrastructure.

Mr Lecornu said all government officials will begin using a new video conferencing platform called “Visio”, an application developed by the French government, instead of American-owned tools such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

The transition is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, he said in a letter to his Cabinet.

“Video conferencing services now play a decisive role in the day-to-day operations of your central administrations,” Mr Lecornu said in the letter to his Cabinet.

Non-European-made tools, he said, pose several risks, including cybersecurity and lack of control over data.

The aim of the roll-out, his government announced in an earlier statement, is “to end the use of non-European solutions” and consequently secure France’s digital autonomy.

“We cannot risk exposing our scientific exchanges, sensitive data and strategic innovations to non-European actors,” government minister David Amiel was quoted in the statement.

The government built the tool with Outscale – a France-based cloud company – and enlisted two French artificial intelligence (AI) companies, Pyannote and Kyutai, to offer transcription and subtitling services, the government said.

The announcements – made just days after

a dispute over Greenland’s sovereignty

further frayed the relationship between Europe and the US – are part of a growing effort by European countries to seek independence from foreign parties, including their long-time transatlantic ally, in strategic fields such as defence and technology.

In July, Mr Lecornu’s predecessor Francois Bayrou asked officials to begin using a government-designed messaging application, called “Tchap”, instead of foreign-owned applications.

Mr Bayrou did not mention any apps by name, but he was widely understood to be referring to apps such as WhatsApp, owned by Meta, and Signal, owned by a US-based non-profit foundation.

In November, the French and German governments struck a deal with SAP, a German software company, and Mistral AI, a French AI company, to develop their own AI tool for the two countries’ public administrations.

The German government has separately asked a state-owned company, The Center for Digital Sovereignty of Public Administration, to help government agencies become less reliant on foreign software. The centre has developed its own alternative to Microsoft Office, called openDesk.

In the Netherlands, lawmakers recently held a hearing in Parliament to discuss concerns over efforts by an American company, a spin-off of IBM, to buy a digital platform that helps power online government services.

The system helps to identify residents of the Netherlands when they log into government websites that hold information about pensions and health insurance, according to the Dutch government. NYTIMES