“The digital summit in Berlin was about "sovereignty." What happened there is an absurd joke, and only US corporations are laughing: Europe wants to "deregulate." Who benefits from this?
Anyone who still harbored a last glimmer of hope that Europe and Germany could manage a turnaround against the attacks on our democracy and economy by Trump and Big Tech is likely ready for internal exile after the "European Summit on Digital Sovereignty," which took place this week in Berlin (F.A.Z., November 19), hosted by the German and French governments.
Even the choice of the topic "sovereignty" and the timing of the "summit" seem absurd in an era characterized by the expansion of Germany's digital dependence on US tech companies: Bavaria has concluded a framework agreement with Microsoft; the Bavarian administration is to be switched to Microsoft 365 for almost one billion euros. Google plans to invest 5.5 billion euros in digital infrastructure in Germany between 2026 and 2029.
The German police are using the US surveillance software Palantir, from Peter Thiel's company.
What does this still have to do with "digital sovereignty"? This, as we know, means freedom and self-determination in the digital space. The fact that this doesn't exist in a world dominated by monopolies should have been the starting point of the summit.
The German government, represented by the Chancellor and the Minister for Digital Affairs, could have presented a vision: How do we prevent our country from becoming a digital colony of the USA? How do we break up the monopolies?
At least the German government has realized that there is a problem, that it can only be solved at the European level, and that it's best to bring France on board. That could be considered progress. However, only if one ignores the past. For more than ten years, France has been pleading with German governments to take joint action. This was already the case under Angela Merkel. A European "Digital Services Tax" in 2019, as the initiative failed due to Germany's resistance, forcing France to implement its own national digital tax. Germany's incompetence in the European data project "GAIA-X" is particularly embarrassing. France wanted to create sovereign, European infrastructure solutions. Germany opposed this and prevailed. And then, of all things, the tech giants were invited to participate. As a result, the project fell far short of its ambitions. Time and again, Germany rejected French initiatives, often accompanied by embarrassing lectures.
This attitude also shaped the tone of this summit. The organizers completely overlooked the fact that "digital sovereignty" is primarily about issues of democracy and media freedom. The focus was solely on economic matters.
Let's follow this narrow perspective, adopt an economically oriented viewpoint, as if the threat to our democracy posed by the coalition of Trump and Big Tech didn't exist, and look at markets, competition, innovation, "deregulation," and "debureaucratization" as the basis for a possible new beginning.
What does this reveal? The digital world is dominated by a monopolistic economy. Approximately 86 percent of the market capitalization of the major global platforms is concentrated in US corporations. Europe accounts for two percent, with almost all the rest going to China. No matter from which perspective one examines the issue (revenue, profits, investments, usage time), the result is always the same: almost all digital markets are occupied by US monopolies. These monopolies were established through semi-legal tricks, illegal practices, and killer acquisitions. The grandmasters of unfair market dominance have layered market-dominating positions with gigantic power. In the case of Alphabet, these include Google (search engines), YouTube (free video), Chrome (browser), Android (operating system), Maps (mapping service), various monopolies and oligopolies in ad-tech markets, and so on. Google thus leverages enormous synergies, leaving competitors powerless. Like other tech giants, Google benefits from massive regulatory privileges that secure the monopoly.
We no longer have functioning digital markets. They "belong" to the monopolists, which is why they are also referred to as "proprietary markets": "The leading companies of the commercial internet no longer truly operate in markets. They are these markets," as Philipp Staab, professor of sociology at Humboldt University, aptly puts it. However, where monopolistically controlled markets exist, there is no longer fair competition, and innovations have virtually no chance. The solution, therefore, would be to create open markets and fair access again, so that competition becomes possible once more.
Tiny stopgap measures are offered by regulations such as the European Digital Markets Act and the interventions of the EU. They disrupt the unfair competition, so the tech oligarchs' profit-making is being hampered. That's why the US government is reacting so brutally to every European initiative, claiming that the EU is triggering a "death spiral." The mantra of Trump and the tech industry is: deregulation. This means: the monopolies must not be challenged. The digital feudal lords will not tolerate any resistance from their European vassals.
And they are extremely successful in this, even turning some people's heads. It's almost unbelievable: the prevailing sentiment among German voices at the Berlin summit was that "deregulation" would bring about a breakthrough. They referred to the EU Commission's "omnibus" initiatives, i.e., the plan to consolidate and simplify the many fragmented regulations.
Let's ignore for a moment the implications this has for democracy and the digital self-determination of citizens.
Even if one considers the situation purely from an economic perspective, it should be clear: under monopolistic conditions, "deregulation" primarily benefits the monopolists.
They can further increase their profits because they are even less hampered by bothersome regulations. Even a layperson should understand: without a consistent opening of the markets to competition, innovations and challengers don't stand a chance. And therefore, we as a society also have no chance of achieving digital sovereignty.
Then we will remain the digital colony of the USA that we currently are.
It is important to recognize that an overly simplistic concept of "regulation" is being used here. The tech companies must be laughing their heads off. Mission accomplished! Why? Because opening up markets and restoring competition can only be achieved through regulatory intervention. To illustrate with an example: until the end of the 1990s, Germany had a telecommunications monopoly, Deutsche Telekom. The market was then opened up, which is why there is competition today. What, on the other hand, is happening with the US corporations, which are also acting in an anti-democratic manner? The opposite is true: We are experiencing monopolistic protectionism for tech oligarchs.
And so, on Tuesday in Berlin, people talked for eight hours about markets, competition, and innovation—about things that no longer exist or are almost impossible to implement. A fantasy world was conjured up; they might as well have been talking about mermaids, elves, or fairies. This didn't seem to bother anyone in the audience. The elephant in the room was ignored. The word "monopoly" was hardly mentioned (a positive exception was the speech by French President Emmanuel Macron).
Yet the tech oligarchs themselves openly admit that they are abolishing capitalism. "Competition is for losers," is the motto of investor, PayPal and Palantir co-founder, and MAGA supporter Peter Thiel. That is the opposite of a free market economy. But the capitalists in Germany don't seem to recognize this.
There may be other reasons for this peculiar denial of reality. Perhaps Trump has already hinted behind the scenes: "If you so much as lift a finger against our digital monopolies, you will be completely on your own in the Ukraine conflict the very next day." But then it would be more considerate to spare us such a summit and not try to sell us this subjugation as "sovereignty." The German government should instead be honest with its citizens. If we don't dismantle the monopolies, "digital sovereignty" will remain a pipe dream.
The author teaches media studies at the University of Cologne; his book "War of the Media. Dark Tech and Populists Take Power" was recently published by Campus Verlag.” [1]
1. Wir sind eine digitale Kolonie. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Frankfurt. 22 Nov 2025: 16. Von Martin Andree
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