Could European Businesses Really Ditch US Workplace Technology?

In December 2024, Russia’s communications authority, Roskomnadzor, blocked access to major foreign technology platforms — including Google, YouTube, Telegram, and WhatsApp — in regions such as Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia. These tests were part of Russia’s broader effort to develop a “sovereign internet,” ensuring domestic control over digital infrastructure in the event of global disconnection.

At the same time, the US has intensified export controls to restrict access to critical technologies. Since February 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has imposed strict measures limiting Russian and Chinese access to semiconductor technologies, AI chips, and other dual-use components. These restrictions aim to curtail military and surveillance capabilities and recently hit the headlines when China’s new Deepseek R1 large language model was reported to be trained on Nvidia’s H800 GPUs, which are an export modified version of the widely used and allegedly more powerful H100 chip.

Beyond these geopolitical tensions, digital sovereignty is also shaping procurement policies. Germany, for example, has enacted legislation known as OZG 2.0 (Onlinezugangsgesetz or Online Access Act), which requires government agencies to prioritize…