Now, there is no denying that the internet is a global resource, however, could Europe’s internet be killed if President Donald Trump so pleased?
Sovereignty hawks in Europe have long voiced concerns that cloud reliance means U.S. agencies can snoop on sensitive data of Europeans stored on American-owned servers in any location, thanks to U.S. laws.
“Trump really hates Europe. He thinks the whole purpose of the EU is to ‘screw‘ America,” said Zach Meyers, director of research at The Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) think tank in Brussels. “The idea that he might order a kill switch or do something else that would severely damage economic interests isn’t quite as implausible as it might have sounded six months ago.”
If the U.S. government were to compel American cloud providers—like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud—to halt services in Europe, the consequences for Europe’s internet infrastructure would be immediate and far-reaching.
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A significant portion of Europe’s digital services from banks and healthcare to logistics, rely on the U.S.-based cloud platforms for data storage, computing power, and software hosting. Many European governments, startups, and multinational corporations host critical applications on these platforms. An abrupt cutoff would likely trigger widespread outages, disrupt financial transactions, freeze government services, and stall digital operations across industries.
While Europe has local cloud providers—such as OVHcloud (France), Deutsche Telekom, and initiatives like GAIA-X—they lack the global scale, resilience, and service breadth of their American counterparts. These providers would be unable to absorb the sudden demand without months or years of preparation.
From a security and sovereignty standpoint, this scenario would underline Europe’s digital vulnerability. It would likely accelerate efforts to develop independent cloud infrastructure, revise procurement strategies, and legislate data localization more aggressively. Politically, it would damage transatlantic relations and could lead to retaliatory measures such as fines, sanctions, or tighter regulatory oversight on U.S. tech firms.
In short, a forced cloud service withdrawal would paralyze large parts of Europe’s digital ecosystem in the short term and catalyze a long-term push for technological self-reliance. It would mark a turning point in how Europe approaches digital sovereignty and global technology dependencies.
“It is no longer reasonable to assume that we can totally rely on our American partner. There’s a serious risk that all of our data is used by the U.S. administration or infrastructure [is] made inaccessible by other countries,” Matthias Ecke, a German social-democrat lawmaker in the European Parliament, told an event in March.
“The risk of a shutdown is the new paradigm,” the boss of French champion OVHcloud, Benjamin Revcolevschi, told the same event. “Cloud is like a tap of water. What if at some moment the tap is closed?”
If Trump forced U.S. cloud providers to cut off Europe, hypothetically, the continent would face immediate digital paralysis across key sectors, exposing deep reliance on American infrastructure. While local cloud initiatives exist, they currently lack the scale to fill the gap. Such a crisis would act as a wake-up call, driving urgent investment in European cloud sovereignty, data localization, and digital independence. Long term, it could reshape Europe’s tech landscape, reducing foreign dependency. Politically, it would strain transatlantic ties and redefine how Europe manages its digital future, prioritizing resilience, autonomy, and security in an increasingly fragmented global technology environment.