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Reposted by jean26.bsky.social
parismarx.com
If the government is serious about digital sovereignty, there is plenty of low-hanging fruit within its control: it can work collaboratively on systems to get the public sector off Microsoft and Google so the US can’t hold it hostage if relations sour even further.

disconnect.blog/escaping-the...
Our ambition cannot stop there though. In far too many cases, our governments, universities, schools, and other public institutions—not to mention private businesses—are run on Microsoft or Google services. Now is the perfect time to get governments off Microsoft 365 and schools off Google Classroom by properly resourcing a new public agency or Crown corporation dedicated to building technology in the public interest. European state, local, and even departments of national governments are already taking the initiative to move in that direction. There are ample open-source tools already out there that could be adapted to those institutional use cases, with a mandate to work in close collaboration with public institutions to ensure their new suite of digital services properly meets their unique needs. Governments could even think about bringing tech development closer to communities, building on a model not dissimilar to public libraries.
January 16, 2026 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by jean26.bsky.social
parismarx.com
As we embraced US tech, we also allowed those companies to chip away at rules that were meant to protect workers’ rights, the public, and society as a whole.

It was supposed to be a worthwhile tradeoff for convenience, investment, and jobs. It hasn’t worked out.

disconnect.blog/escaping-the...
Our dependence on U.S. tech has long been a problem, just one that many people in power did not want to touch because of how it would anger the United States. Even proposing basic tech regulations prompted rebukes from the U.S. government and threatened the prospect of investment from those digital colonizers. But that dependence left us without the tools to get a handle on key avenues for communication and commerce. As U.S. tech companies fought to roll back workers’ rights in the gig economy and beyond, allowed false information to spread across social media platforms, decimated the funding model for journalism, and had countless other negative social impacts, the Canadian government was limited in its ability to respond. All the while, as more Canadians—both individuals and companies—became dependent on U.S. digital services, the profits were siphoned back to the United States, fueling a growing economic divide that has prompted economists to start sounding the alarm.
January 16, 2026 at 5:48 PM