"Google has criticized the European Union’s intentions to achieve digital sovereignty through open-source software."

Umm...ok...I think I can see why they did that, but lets read further...

"The company [Google] warned that Brussels’ policies aimed at reducing dependence on American tech companies could harm competitiveness. "

Yeah. For Google itself it can definitely "harm [their] competetiveness".

"According to Google, the idea of replacing current tools with open-source programs would not contribute to economic growth."

Correct again, if you ARE Google. If everyone start using open-source alternatives it will most likely not contribute to Googles economic growth.

It quite likely will contribute to economic growth for a bunch of smaller/new companies. It will also open the playing field for software development which still being possible for anyone to verify/test/check/view the source code to ensure there are no flaws in there, or algorithms for tracking people based on advertising goals.

They are kind of correct too in that it will probably cause a temporary set-back in economic growth for all those companies that live under the illusion of "there should always be growth and we will do anything to make that happen", but I consider that a good thing. When that speed bump has been passed there will be an opportunity to do a controlled/reasonable acceleration.

Given that Google has removed the "Don't be evil" from their Mission Statement, for unknown reason, I think it is wise, for many different reasons, to cut down on the dependence on Google (and Microsoft, Facebook etc), and to look at alternatives. Ideally open-source ones that can be scrutinized by anyone who wishes to do so.

lemmy.world/post/43144736
#google #opensource #eu #europe