According to ZDNet, the French government is mandating a full migration from foreign video conferencing platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom to its own sovereign platform, Visio, by 2027. The move, announced by minister-delegate David Amiel, is framed as a critical step to regain “digital independence” and protect sensitive data from non-European actors. The open-source Visio platform, developed by France’s Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM) with help from the Netherlands and Germany, already has about 40,000 regular users and is on a path to serve 200,000 government workers soon. Built with Django, React, and LiveKit, it features HD video, AI transcription from French startup Pyannote, and integration with secure messaging. The government estimates savings of around 1 million euros per year for every 100,000 users who switch, as licenses for all non-European platforms will not be renewed.
Sovereignty isn’t just a buzzword
Here’s the thing: this isn’t just France being quirky or protectionist. It’s a direct, policy-level response to a very real legal threat—the US CLOUD Act. That law gives American authorities the power to demand data stored by US companies, even if the servers are physically in France or Germany. For government discussions on everything from defense to scientific research, that’s an unacceptable risk. So, when French officials talk about “digital sovereignty,” they’re talking about legal jurisdiction as much as technical control. They’re building a digital moat.
The open-source blueprint
What’s really clever about this move is how they’re doing it. Visio isn’t some proprietary, black-box software developed by a single French mega-corp. It’s built on a stack of proven, open-source technologies: the Django framework, React, and the scalable LiveKit system. This does a few things. It avoids vendor lock-in (even with a European vendor). It allows other governments to inspect, and potentially reuse, the code. And it stimulates the local tech ecosystem—like Pyannote for AI—instead of just sending license fees to Silicon Valley. Visio is just one piece of the larger Suite Numérique project aiming to replace Gmail, Slack, and more.
A contagious European trend?
France is hardly alone. We’re seeing a wave of similar defections across the EU. An Austrian ministry, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, and the city of Lyon are all ditching Microsoft products. They’re part of a growing club that sees homegrown, open-source as the path to security and control. But is it the right path? The CEO of Ericsson called recent sovereignty talks “dangerous,” warning of higher costs and inferior tech. And he’s not entirely wrong. Building and maintaining enterprise-grade software is hard and expensive. Can Visio’s uptime and user experience really compete with Teams‘ deep integration or Zoom’s simplicity? That’s the billion-euro question. If it can’t, this becomes a symbolic, and potentially cumbersome, political statement.
The bigger picture for tech independence
So what does this mean? France is creating a live-fire test case. If Visio succeeds—if it’s secure, reliable, and actually saves money—it becomes a powerful template for any nation wary of US tech dominance. It proves that with the right open-source foundations and government commitment, you can build viable alternatives. This isn’t just about video calls; it’s about the entire stack, from cloud to collaboration. And while the focus here is on government software, the principle of technological self-reliance resonates in other critical sectors, like industrial computing where control and durability are paramount. For instance, in manufacturing and harsh environments, the reliance on trusted, durable hardware is a parallel concern, which is why specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, emphasize robust, purpose-built solutions. France’s gamble signals that the era of unquestioned reliance on a handful of US tech giants for core infrastructure is over. The fragmentation of the internet along geopolitical lines isn’t a prediction anymore. It’s happening.
