“Meta invests $72 billion, where are the European tech giants? Bureaucrats can’t match Elon Musk. Europe has no unicorns, no AI centers, no talent cult. Maybe we’re just not made for this.”
I recently heard this reaction to my European Digital Autonomy Initiative (EDAI). It’s not ill-willed — it’s a brutally honest summary of the skepticism many feel. And you know what? I get it. That’s exactly my starting point.
My EDAI doesn’t pretend that Europe is leading the digital race today. We’re not. But accepting this reality isn’t the same as surrendering to it.
Europe doesn’t need to copy Silicon Valley. We don’t need to outspend Meta or worship “techbro” hustle culture. What we do need is to recognize that this is not just a technological game — it’s a cultural and political one too.
Our digital ecosystem should reflect who we are: privacy-conscious, democratic, multilingual, inclusive. It’s not naïve to build on those values — it’s strategic. Long-term trust and legitimacy matter.
Yes, we lack the capital of the Big Five. But we have regulation, infrastructure, community, and a vision of the public good. That’s a different kind of power.
So no, we’re not going to give up. And no, I’m not walking away.
I’m building — slowly, collaboratively, and with purpose. Join me.
📌 Explore the full strategy and share your thoughts: 👉 European Digital Autonomy Initiative
Follow me on Mastodon:
TechTonicShift (@[email protected]) – Vivaldi Social
Gabor Hrasko (@[email protected]) – Mastodon
#EDAI #DigitalSovereignty #EuropeanAlternatives #TechForEurope #OpenSource #DigitalAutonomy #EuropeanValues #BuyEuropean #TechTonicShift
@techtonicshift Bert wrote quite recently a nice actionable plan for much of the same. Curious on what you think about it? https://fosstodon.org/@bert_hubert/114465391255196835
Great thanks for this contact! I am just starting bulding my connections.
@[email protected] @TechTonicShift @ghrasko there also a politic hypocrisy that ask EU alternative yet allow US to go in at the first opportunity destroying any EU contestant even when their offer is good.
@sh4dowhe4rt @[email protected] @[email protected]
You are right, and that is why I outlined a complete system with 3 pillars that reinforce each other. Check it here:
https://techtonicshift.vivaldi.net/edai/initiative/
@[email protected] @[email protected] @ghrasko Thanks, very interesting, could you perhaps add a few lines about yourself and who “we” is institutionally?
@christianschwaegerl @[email protected] @[email protected]
Sorry for the ambiguity – this is not my native language. This initiative is presently my personal idea. So "We, Europeans…".
As I see, there are several very promising initiatives for various aspects of the problem, but I had not seen so far a comprehensive initiative that suggests a complete picture. I was brave enough to come up with a draft – that is my EDAI initiative…
@christianschwaegerl @[email protected] @[email protected]
I am looking for a good company or would like to join an already established initiative or movement that deals with this topic.
@ghrasko @[email protected] @[email protected] thanks!
I also added an About page now:
https://techtonicshift.vivaldi.net/about/
@techtonicshift Great. We share quite a few interests – biology, tech independence, journalism, and most importantly birding if I interpret the binoculars correctly 😉
@christianschwaegerl @techtonicshift
Yes, binoculars for bird watching 🙂 Doing it for some 48 years.
@ghrasko @techtonicshift About the same time span 🙂
@[email protected] @[email protected] @ghrasko
Or the dark vision
The tech we are going to have was invented long ago
We are just grinding through
@[email protected] @[email protected] @ghrasko We need tech, not big tech https://bigtechmussweg.de/index_en.html We need healthy competition, not a few behemoths completely dominating the market. We don't need the bloated microsoft-suite of apps, salesforce, surveillance capitalism, google search or AI-slop to get things done. We need tech that is fit for purpose.