What do you get when the world’s most powerful government fines a tech giant billions, then watches its own president threaten foreign nations for daring to do the same (and the same), all while regulators at home try to dismantle the very company they’re defending abroad? No, it’s not the latest Netflix dark comedy. It’s just another week in digital geopolitics, starring Google, the EU, and a cameo from Donald Trump.
From the outside, it looks like a satire so perfectly absurd you’d swear it was fiction. Except, of course, for the hundreds of billions in real money and the political power at stake.
Act 1: The Absurdity in Plain Sight
Let’s recap:
The EU fines Google €2.95B for abusing its dominance in digital advertising.
The US government is, simultaneously, trying to break up Google for antitrust, forcing the company to defend itself on both sides of the Atlantic.
Donald Trump, head of state and ex-president, threatens to launch a trade war with Europe, not to defend national security or American jobs, but to defend the “right” of Google to do business as usual. This, while US regulators are dragging the same company through the courts at home, and Australia is slapping its own fines on the company, too.
What could possibly go wrong? Only the digital future of two continents.
Act 2: "National Treasure" or National Liability?
This isn’t the first time a head of state has wrapped their arms around Big Tech and called it “national treasure.” In China, the state props up Alibaba and Tencent, then tightens the leash when they get too powerful. In Russia, tech giants serve at the pleasure of the Kremlin – or not at all.
But in the US, it’s a circus on a whole other level: One arm of government sues, another threatens, and all the while, “national champions” like Google and Meta are simultaneously cash cows, geopolitical weapons, and political scapegoats, all while enjoying a dinner with the head of state himself.
Act 3: The View from the Cheap Seats - The Emperor Has No Clothes
From the outside, the logic is impossible to follow.
- The US itself sues Google for antitrust.
- Australia fines Google for anticompetitive deals.
- Europe fines Google.
- The US threatens Europe for daring to regulate.
- All sides claim to support “open markets”, “competition”, and “sovereignty” – but apparently, only when convenient.
The EU is urged to become digitally sovereign, but every step toward independence is met with resistance, sometimes economic, sometimes political, sometimes both. Sounds more like a dysfunctional family dinner, where everyone is arguing about who gets to carve the turkey, while the turkey owns the kitchen.
Or, just maybe, this proves that Big Tech couldn’t care less about the law – anywhere.
Act 4: Lessons from the Theatre of the Absurd
Sovereignty is just a word, until it’s real. If your stack is American, your rules are negotiable – no matter how many laws you pass.
Big Tech isn’t your friend, or your enemy. It’s a pawn. The only question is: who’s moving it today?
Policy is power. But only if you own the platforms. Until then, Europe is an audience, not an actor.
Final Thought
If this were fiction, it would be hilarious, at least until you remember that the stakes are real: Jobs, privacy, market access and political independence. But for now, it’s tragic, at least for Europe. If you’re still betting your business, your school, or your government on US cloud and AI, you’re gambling with loaded dice. The only punchline? Until Europe builds, owns, and operates its own digital stack, end-to-end, these episodes will keep repeating. Each season, the plot gets more expensive.
The real-life events are starting to resemble a bad tragicomedy just a bit too much. Maybe it’s time for a new script. Or can you afford to gamble your company at the Act 5?
Victor A. Lausas
Chief Executive Officer
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