The French government will roll out its alternative to US video platforms Zoom and Microsoft Teams across state services, it has announced, in a bid to strengthen the security of its communications and end reliance on non-European systems.
The alternative, named Visio, was launched last year and is currently used by 40,000 French civil servants in institutions that include the Defence Ministry, the National Health Insurance system and the Directorate General of Public Finances.
The aim is for France to “regain its digital independence”, said David Amiel, Minister Delegate for Civil Service and State Reform. He wants Visio, developed by the interministerial digital directorate, to be used by all state services by 2027. Visio, meaning vision, is a common abbreviation of the French term visioconference.
“We cannot take the risk of having our scientific exchanges, our sensitive data, our strategic innovations exposed to non-European actors,” Mr Amiel said in a statement issued on Monday. “Digital sovereignty is simultaneously an imperative for our public services, an opportunity for our businesses, and insurance against future threats.”
The French government said it relies too heavily on tools such as Teams, Zoom, GoTo Meeting and Webex – all US companies. This increases costs, slows down communication and creates “strategic dependencies on external infrastructures”, it said.
France, and other states within the European Union, have been trying to strengthen their digital tools. US sanctions issued in December against senior EU officials, including former commissioner Thierry Breton, over what Washington described as “digital censorship” created shock waves in Europe.
Mr Breton, a French businessman who has also served as France's economy minister, had championed the EU's Digital Services Act, which imposes regulations on social media giants including X.
In December, the European Commission fined X €120 million ($140 million) for breaching online content rules. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the fine as “an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people”.
Europeans are concerned about election interference on social media. Recent examples include the emergence of AI phenomenon Amelia in the UK. The purple-haired young woman started as a counter-extremism game funded by the UK government to deter young people from the far-right. Her image has since been subverted by Grok AI users with apparent racist intent to warn against Muslims and “third-world migrants”.
This week, the European Commission also launched an investigation into X over the production of sexually explicit images and the spread of possible child abuse material by Grok.
