Issue #24 - July 10, 2026
Is tech sovereignty a thing citizens really want? The EC puts the French social media ban for youth in limbo
Sébastien Louradour
7/10/20264 min read
Is tech sovereignty a thing citizens really want?
Google Cloud commissioned in France a survey to IFOP, a survey institute, to sense-check to what extent the ongoing push by policymakers and political parties for tech sovereignty resonates among citizens. When it comes to strategic autonomy, France is ground 0. Already, President de Gaulle, warned about the risk of depending too much on the US half a century ago, and today not only has this mindset been the same, but has even spread out across other EU countries, even some of them long time seen as indisputable allies of the US. US change of policy on Nato, Greenland and Ukraine is surely the igniting factor for these countries, but France can still pride itself of having been the one saying all along “I told you so”. But once all of this political consideration is put aside, what do citizens actually think of US technology? Are they willing to throw away their Gmail accounts and iPhones to switch with European technology? The response isn’t a clear cut. When asked about the type of sovereignty that is the most important for citizens, digital ranks in the last position, far behind economy, food or energy, and when asked what digital sovereignty brings to mind, the largest single response is no response at all. At the same time, when asked specifically about digital sovereignty issues, French always consider them as important, starting with administrative data then health data. Even social media posts, that for the most part are made publicly available, turn out to be important for 59% of them. When French and global tech players are being compared, Global tech players lead on technological innovation, speed, quality, price, ergonomy, and the French ones on security and data protection but only by a small margin. The survey has the merit of confirming some assumptions: tech sovereignty issues are, when named individually, very important to French people, but they don’t necessarily see global tech players as a concern. This is also confirmed by the 74% of people who agree that French/Global tech partnerships can lead to more sovereignty. As a consequence, nothing really emerges clearly for policymakers who are pushing for a tech sovereignty agenda. Citizens are mostly lost by the political concept of tech sovereignty, and that poses multiple risks: individual users could be angry at policymakers willing to ban specific foreign technologies, and alternatively could turn against tech players that don’t protect individual data well enough. It’s a paradox that when put together doesn’t make a lot of sense, and that might confirm one signal: Technology choices remain individual decisions and imposing policies on how to choose them might backfire badly.
The EC puts the French social media ban for youth in limbo
Banning youth from technology has become the new trend and it seems the mood isn’t going to change anytime soon. After a decade of battle between social media and governments over how the technology should be handled to youth, and a decision from the industry, including Meta, to call for governments to regulate on youth access, the message has been taken, indeed governments are regulating, but in a way no one would have truly anticipated even a year ago. Bans have become the go-to solution in many Western countries. A week before the UK PM resignation announcement, the UK government announced a ban of social media for youth. Australia, who has led the charge among western countries, is now a couple of months within the ban, and we can start getting signals about whether such a bazooka approach has benefits to the youth. 85% of under-16s in Australia said they were still using social media three months after legislation banning them from it came into force, research shows. Unsurprisingly, youth are extremely creative at finding ways to use platforms anyway. But this finding isn't slowing down policymakers who are favouring bans. In the EU, the bans are also spreading, but with one big caveat. The European Commission has asked France to review its social media ban, which was scheduled for enforcement within the next months, a blow to Macron who has put this policy measure at the top of his agenda. The EC doesn't object to France's intention to ban social media for under-15s, but considers the current draft incompatible with the DSA on several implementation points. The issue of having Member States willing to move first on this matter has been a concern for Brussels from the start, and France has on its side decided to move faster than the EU, with the risk of not being fully aligned with EU rules. One big point of concern is over who will ultimately enforce a law that is meant to become European eventually. France, instead of anticipating the EC will govern large platforms on this issue, has given to ARCOM, the French digital authority, the mandate to enforce the law for all platforms, including the ones that are considered by the EU as very large, and that should be enforced only at EU level, according to the DSA. One issue is that France has added a new categorization of platforms, and ARCOM will be given the authority to determine which platforms fall into the designation of the ban. While it may sound like a cosmetic issue, the French law is likely going to end up in a very tight parliamentary agenda until the French presidential election, and could end up being enforced after the 2027 elections. One additional issue being that the French Senate and the French Assembly are in disagreement over the two-tier categorisation of platforms. In the meantime, chances that the EU ends up adopting EU-level restrictions on youth access are growing, which would de facto remove similar initiatives at member state level.