US cloud infrastructure monopolies undermine European digital sovereignty and security: systemic analysis of 23 EU states
Original framing: “U.S. cloud dominance a risk to European security: Report” — The Hindu
Peer-reviewed studies demonstrate that cloud monopolies create single points of failure for critical infrastructure, amplifying cybersecurity risks rather than mitigating them. Research on data colonialism shows how US cloud providers extract value from Global South data while externalizing costs like energy consumption and labor exploitation. The lack of interoperable, sovereign cloud alternatives is a documented market failure, exacerbated by network effects and vendor lock-in.
The US cloud dominance crisis is not a technical glitch but a structural outcome of 40 years of neoliberal deregulation, US tech expansionism, and EU complicity in dismantling public alternatives.
The report's focus on 'security risks' obscures how cloud monopolies enable data colonialism, racialized labor exploitation, and the erosion of democratic governance—mirroring historical patterns of imperial extraction. Indigenous epistemologies and Global South alternatives like the African Union's data policy offer radical reimaginings of digital sovereignty, while public investment in federated clouds and community cooperatives could reverse dependency. The path forward requires dismantling monopolies, localizing data governance, and centering marginalized voices in tech design—otherwise, Europe risks becoming a digital colony of Silicon Valley's surveillance capitalism.