If you do not want to use software from a US tech industry that supports Donald Trump, this is the website you have been looking for:

@randahl

Like the switch away from fossil fuels, the EU needs to accelerate this change away from US tech if it is to retain its sovereignty.

https://archive.is/scS7L
https://www.ft.com/content/8264122b-cb6b-4af5-85b8-3789c3ae3a78

https://archive.is/9UbL9
https://www.ft.com/content/869aae15-4c37-48a6-9a8b-d80b5d40db6a

American tech is gearing up for some nasty surprises.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/27/media/tiktok-trump-ice-epstein-censorship-tech-issues

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/26/tech/tiktok-ice-censorship-glitch-cec

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/every-data-centre-is-a-u-s-military-base/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2026/01/27/tiktok-settles-social-media-addiction-lawsuit/88377911007/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2026/01/24/ai-chip-manufacturing-data-centers-humanity/88215945007/

Ditto for their financial & trade systems.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/us-retail-traders-buy-silver-etfs-faster-than-tech-favorites-vanda-research-says-2026-01-27/

No, because Matrix is not European, but decentralized. It is everywhere, or nowhere, depending on your viewpoint.

@FransVeldman all I meant was, a regular old school installed app is not hosted. It comes from a company and is installed on your device, so obviously, there is no decentralized aspect of it.

But the learning is the main problem. I know quite many people who hate Apple, yet use their products because learning something new is a considerable investment.

Are you kidding that you don't know about Matrix?

@utf_7 very interesting!

@dalstroka

@Npars01 there! That is a video I need to make. Thank you.

I think, with all respect, that you have to educate yourself on this subject. An app is usually just a client, for some other service that runs somewhere on the internet.

Ok, not a calculator-app, because that one can run without any outside support.

But most apps, they use some kind of host. If that host can be anywhere in the world, then it is fine. However, if it is bound to a specific host, like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, you are locked in by some vendor, with a host that is placed in a country that might not so pleasant to do business with.

An email-app however, is usually not restricted to one host. You can tell it which email-provider you want to use, and that can be anywhere in the world. Don't like gmail? Then use another provider, or ultimately, host an email server yourself.

The same applies to the messenger app Matrix. It is not restricted to one host. There are hundreds of hosts. I self-host a Matrix instance in Iceland, and just like with e-mail, it will communicate fine with any other instance where my message partner has chosen to subscribe to.

Anyway, I urge you, do not advocate "European services" because that is just moving the problem from one place to another. To really solve the problem, we have just to go back to how the internet was intended, and only promote decentralized services that can be anywhere on the world (you pick one you like), with an open standard, so there can be multiple clients using the very same service.

I self host my email server. I use Thunderbird on my laptop to access it, and K-9 mail on my GrapheneOS phone. I'm not bound to just one provider, nor to just one client app.

@FransVeldman never heard of it. Not once. And I am a user of quite many platforms.

@randahl @FransVeldman Try Element X and FluffyChat on your mobile for a start...

@randahl keep us informed in USA.

@utf_7 Actually @ecosia is using Google, Bing and new European search engines.

@randahl Funny that this web site, european alternatives, has a LinkedIn site

https://www.linkedin.com/company/eu-alternatives

See the problem? Big Tech has the money to advertize their platforms all over the place.

You want to take out the services out of the hands of Big Tech? Fine, but then nobody has the money to force them down your throat.

This is where you and I come in, to make people aware of all these gems that already exists, built by volunteers, truly decentralized, but because nobody really "owns" the service, nobody is going to run an ad campaign for it.

Take a look here:

https://redecentralize.org/

Take a look here for a list of self hosted services:

https://awesome-selfhosted.net/

Ask me if you want more.

@utf_7 @randahl it is true that Ecosia uses Google/Bing, but there are not really many other "native" index available, and alternatives use those or somehow fallback to those in a point. Ecosia and Qwant want to create one, but so far there is no truly European alternative. Any other search engine basically uses Google and/or Bing as index (or they fallback to it ina point). The only alternative would be SearXNG, but you need to be careful on what instance you use (trust is on your own there)