Second, companies in this increasingly autocratic and hostile US control every major digital platform that Europeans use to debate and share news, with the exception of TikTok, which is Chinese. Even Europe’s news organisations rely on Google and other US advertising technology companies for online revenue. Trump can humiliate or cripple the oligarchs who control these companies.
Europe should not rely on markets and private capital. Germany, for example can setup a state owned enterprise to build an alternative to Google. It wouldn’t have to worry about market profitability constraints like private corps.