The game was always rigged

Have you ever stopped to think about why your organisation’s computers run Windows or why your data is on Amazon Web Services, or why a good part of your business workflow depends on Google?

American tech companies don’t always dominate because the world loves them (many poll as badly as tobacco companies) but because US trade policy says so.

This is not new. For decades, US trade and internet policy has helped entrench their position abroad by promoting digital rules that favour US platforms, global data flows, and weak regulatory barriers.

And today, countries that try to fine or regulate US platforms face trade sanctions.

The Trump White House has described the EU digital regulations as “overseas extortion”. Trade deals now explicitly require that some countries waive the right to regulate American tech in exchange for aid. Free market? Not so much.

The tools you use aren’t simply products, they’re also extensions of another country’s foreign policy.

Many organisations stay locked in because of switching costs, habit, and the reassuring fiction that the dominant option is also the best one.

Every day it looks more and more like a risk. Preparing an exit plan might be a good idea.

Colin