American tech giants just lost a major customer. The French government announced it will phase out Zoom and Microsoft Teams across all public administration by 2027, replacing them with a homegrown alternative called Visio. The move isn’t about features or pricing. It’s about control.
“Dependencies that seem most innocuous in calm times can be brutally exploited against us in times of crisis,” David Amiel, France’s Minister Delegate for Civil Service, told La Tribune Dimanche. The minister framed the shift as part of a broader European sovereignty push that extends from international diplomacy down to everyday government operations.
“The government needs to wean itself off these platforms to ensure the security of our communications under all circumstances,” he said.
This isn’t France’s first step towards digital independence. The government has already begun migrating sensitive data to sovereign cloud solutions: European-controlled infrastructure designed to keep French government data out of reach of foreign surveillance laws. In 2023 France’s Ministry of Education switched from Microsoft Office to open-source alternative Collabora Online.
Other governments should take note. Mature software categories like office suites now have open-source alternatives that match their proprietary rivals feature for feature. The savings are significant, but the real prize is sovereignty: no foreign subpoenas, no licensing leverage and no surprise policy changes from a vendor headquartered in another jurisdiction.