I have to return to an article I published two weeks ago: “Why Even Try? A European Answer to Digital Pessimism“, because it turns out the problem may be deeper than I thought. Do we really believe this little in ourselves? Where does this deep-seated defeatism come from?
I’ve said it before: when I talk about the idea of European digital autonomy, I don’t do so naively. The nature of an idea is that it detaches from current limitations and dares to propose a direction. It might never be fully realized, but it offers guidance. If we start from a place of disbelief, we end up with nihilism.
I was glad to see that the TLDR News EU YouTube channel recently published a video asking whether Europe needs its own social media platforms. But I was disheartened to see that the main argument for it was the EU’s ability to better control content and thus counter foreign influence, like Elon Musk’s political meddling via X (formerly Twitter).
To me, that’s missing the point entirely. We don’t need European alternatives so the EU can control them. We need them so no one can. Platforms aligned with European values should be resilient against both corporate and political dominance. Their virality shouldn’t be driven by profit-maximizing algorithms but by human sharing—one follower at a time. Mastodon and the Fediverse show this is already feasible, even if imperfect.
Yes, such platforms may not thrive under traditional business models—but isn’t that a feature, not a bug? One of our core European values is that not everything should be subject to market forces.
The TLDR video also lists the usual difficulties: network effects, lower quality of European tech, fragmentation. They question whether EU algorithms might also generate echo chambers. But this presumes that European platforms would merely copy American designs—an assumption I strongly reject. Most concerning is the implicit conclusion that building something based on European values would be too complicated to attempt:
- Europe lacks the digital infrastructure the US has, especially in AI and cybersecurity
- The EU doesn’t have the same startup culture
- The EU consists of 27 separate markets and languages
I agree with these facts. But to use them as reasons to give up is terrifying. Have we truly lost the spirit of “not because it is easy, but because it is hard”—the very mindset that once made America great?
It’s hypocritical and unsustainable to celebrate European values while depending entirely on foreign platforms that directly undermine them. That’s like applauding environmentalism while importing goods made with child labor and environmental destruction—as long as it’s far from Europe, we pretend we’re clean.
If we accept that European values can only survive by outsourcing their violation elsewhere, then basically we agree that Elon Musk was right when he said: “The biggest weakness of the West was empathy.”
Yes, the challenge is enormous—but not impossible. Do we really think Europe lacks the minds to build strong AI models? That we can’t scale up our search engines, maps, or data centers? That multilingual platforms can’t be enhanced with translation tools—just like the US platforms already use? This isn’t a lack of cognitive capacity. It’s not even a lack of production capability. We are on par with our global peers in that regard.
What we lack is alignment across all levels—users, entrepreneurs, and policymakers. I know the foundation is shaky. It always was. But if we don’t address this now, in 10–20 years there may be nothing left to preserve.
Regardless of whether you’re conservative or progressive, you’ll find that the European culture and values you care about are no longer there. Despite all our differences, I still believe we Europeans could think together—about what we share, what we want to preserve, and what kind of digital future we want to shape. We must.
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