Digital Powerlessness – Germany Ensnared by Big Tech - A Film by ARD

The fact that the Bundeswehr will store its data in the Google Cloud is not an IT project. It is a security policy capitulation. Just like the decision to give Peter Thiel’s Palantir direct access to German police data. These two examples are not isolated missteps – they are expressions of systemic failure. Germany has relinquished its digital sovereignty.

Lack of Strategy as a Principle

Instead of developing a coherent digital strategy, the German government has settled for elevating American hyperscalers to the standard. Cloud infrastructure, identity management, communication networks, cybersecurity – almost all critical systems are structurally supported by US corporations. The illusion that one has acquired “the best technologies” replaces any geopolitical analysis. Those who place data in the Google Cloud, who integrate Palantir into police systems, are not choosing efficiency but dependency.

Hyperscalers Are Not Neutral Actors

The notion that one is merely purchasing neutral services from Google, Microsoft, or Amazon is naive. These corporations are deeply embedded in the security architecture of the USA, financed and supported by Pentagon, NSA, and CIA-affiliated funds like In-Q-Tel. Their dominance is not a market economy accident but has been strategically planned for decades. Silicon Valley was never independent – it was always part of the military-industrial project, just with commercial facades.

When state institutions move their data to these infrastructures, they not only relinquish control. They make security-relevant systems vulnerable to foreign interests. That Palantir, a company with declared political adversaries in Europe, will have access to German police data is not merely an IT risk. It is a political watershed. How the digital sellout of Europe progresses is particularly evident in such decisions.

Lack of European Responses

Europe has the GDPR, one of the strictest data protection frameworks worldwide. Yet, while regulating data flows, it consistently sells the infrastructure in which these data are processed to third parties. There is no serious industrial policy aimed at building European alternatives. Instead, billion-dollar cloud budgets are transferred to the USA and celebrated as “transformation.”

The consequence: Germany is structurally incapable of making sovereign decisions in the digital sphere. Those who do not control the infrastructure do not control the data. And those who do not control the data lose not only competitive advantages but also political agency.

The Price of Convenience

The short-term logic of buying “the best tools” ignores the long-term cost. Vendor lock-in, dependency on the Cloud Act, rising costs, and the abandonment of any self-determination are not side effects but fundamental principles of this model. Big Tech sells not only computing power but political ties. And Germany has embraced this – without debate, without strategy, without a Plan B.

Conclusion: Time for a Sovereign Digital Policy

Those who believe these developments are a marginal issue are mistaken. Digital infrastructure is as security-relevant today as energy or defense. Those who relinquish it forfeit sovereignty. Germany and Europe must finally stop confusing infrastructure with consumer goods. It is not enough to buy cloud services and call it progress. An industrial policy response is needed, one that builds its own capacities, enforces European standards, and ends strategic dependencies. Why we must now part ways with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud becomes particularly clear in this context.

The ARD documentary “Digital Powerlessness – Germany Ensnared by Big Tech” precisely and factually illustrates these connections. It highlights the mistakes of the past twenty years, exposes the entanglements of tech corporations and the military – and makes it clear that it is high time to correct this course.

Clear recommendation: watch it. Anyone who still believes these are purely technical issues has not understood the real problem.

https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/story/digitale-ohnmacht-deutschland-im-bann-von-big-tech/ndr/Y3JpZDovL25kci5kZS80ODg2NmUzNC1mZTc2LTRmMDItYWMxZS00NzE1Y2JiOWQxMzY