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Key takeaways
- France is dropping US videoconferencing for its own open-source tool.
- Visio is rolling out now and will replace other services by 2027.
- Visio is part of the EU's broader push for digital sovereignty.
It's not about the French government not trusting US tech companies... Sorry, actually, it is. It's all about France not trusting American companies with its data or services.
As David Amiel, France's minister-delegate for the civil service and state reform, put it: France is committed "to regaining our digital independence. We cannot risk having our scientific exchanges, our sensitive data, and our strategic innovations exposed to non-European actors."
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So, France is pushing US tech giants out of the French government. They're moving civil servants off Microsoft Teams and Zoom and onto a homegrown videoconferencing platform called Visio -- all in the name of sovereign control over its digital infrastructure.
Paris has framed the decision as a strategic break from dependence on American cloud and collaboration platforms. The French government is explicitly linking it to a broader doctrine of "digital sovereignty." This EU-based movement, which has been around for over a decade, is dedicated to the proposition that EU countries should rely on native EU tech companies, cloud services, and platforms.
Non?European platforms will not be renewed
EU officials argue that relying on US-hosted services exposes government discussions to foreign laws, such as the 2018 US Cloud Act, which authorizes the US government to access data even when servers are located on European soil.
Moving to the practical details, under the new videoconferencing plan, the MIT-licensed, open-source Visio will be rolled out across all ministries and state agencies, becoming the default and eventually the exclusive videoconferencing tool for French government workers. Visio has no relationship to the Microsoft diagramming and flowcharting program of the same name.
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Moving forward, licences for Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, GoToMeeting, and all other non?European platforms will not be renewed as departments migrate, with full deployment targeted by 2027.
France's Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM) developed Visio as a sovereign videoconferencing platform for the French state. The Netherlands and Germany have also helped with its development. The program was built using Django, the open-source Python web framework; React, the JavaScript library for building user interfaces (UIs); and LiveKit, a scalable video conferencing system. Visio offers features such as HD video calls, screen sharing, and chat.
It's been tested for about a year and already has approximately 40,000 regular users, with an expansion path to some 200,000 workers in the near term.
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Visio is part of a broader Suite Numerique project, a family of open-source sovereign software programs designed to replace US services such as Gmail, Slack, and other collaboration tools currently used by the French administration. As a modern conferencing product, Visio offers AI?powered transcription and speaker identification, built with technology from French start?up Pyannote, and integrates with existing secure messaging systems like Tchap, which runs on the Matrix protocol.
Officials said the software stack was developed with support from France's cybersecurity agency ANSSI to harden encryption and meet national security requirements.
France is making this move not only to support digital sovereignty and improve security. The elysee is also selling the switch to save money and stimulate local industry. Government estimates suggest that discontinuing external videoconferencing licences could save around 1 million euros per year for every 100,000 users who move to Visio. The move aligns closely with an EU?level push to reduce reliance on dominant US cloud and software vendors; the European Parliament recently adopted resolutions urging more control over critical digital infrastructure and AI platforms.
When digital sovereignty becomes policy
France's pivot lands at a time of heightened transatlantic tension over data protection, antitrust, and industrial policy. It also sends a clear signal that at least one major EU state is, at the highest level, willing to enshrine digital sovereignty as policy rather than a distant aspiration. Many other EU entities -- including an Austrian ministry, the Austrian military, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, Danish government organizations, and the French city of Lyon -- are dropping Microsoft programs in favor of homegrown European alternatives.
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Not everyone in Europe is enthusiastic about digital sovereignty. B?rje Ekholm, CEO of Swedish telecom equipment firm Ericsson, recently said at Davos that recent European discussions around sovereignty are "dangerous," and that attempts to build homegrown alternatives to US technology would lead to higher prices in the region.
Be that as it may, if Visio can match the usability and uptime of US companies while keeping data within European legal jurisdiction, Paris may have created a template for other countries seeking to move away from reliance on American technology.
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