France is phasing out Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and other US videoconferencing tools across its public sector and switching to a homegrown platform called Visio. The move cements Paris’s push for digital sovereignty, aiming to keep government communications under European legal jurisdiction and reduce strategic dependence on American cloud vendors.
Why Paris Is Leaving US Platforms for Security and Sovereignty
French officials frame the decision as a security and sovereignty imperative. Minister-delegate David Amiel has argued that the state must reclaim digital independence so that sensitive research, policy debates, and strategic data are not exposed to non‑European oversight.
The 2018 US CLOUD Act looms large in this calculus because it can compel American providers to hand over data even if stored in Europe. That tension, sharpened by past transatlantic data-transfer disputes and the EU’s focus on resilience, has driven governments to re-evaluate reliance on US-hosted collaboration suites.
France’s stance aligns with broader EU objectives. The European Parliament has urged stronger control over critical digital infrastructure and AI platforms, and several member states are exploring sovereign alternatives for email, messaging, storage, and real-time communications.
What Visio Brings to the Table for Public Sector Use
Visio is an open-source, MIT-licensed videoconferencing platform developed by France’s Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM) with contributions from partners in the Netherlands and Germany. It’s unrelated to Microsoft’s diagramming software of the same name.
Under the hood, Visio uses Django for backend services, React for the user interface, and LiveKit for scalable real-time media. Core features include HD video, screen sharing, and chat. It also offers AI-powered transcription and speaker identification via French startup Pyannote, and it integrates with Tchap, the government’s secure messaging app built on the Matrix protocol.
Security hardening has been conducted with guidance from ANSSI, France’s cybersecurity agency, to meet national security and compliance requirements. The open-source model allows code audits and community scrutiny, which governments increasingly value for transparency and control.
Rollout Timeline and Expected Savings Through 2027
Visio has been piloted for roughly a year and already counts around 40,000 regular users inside the administration. DINUM plans a rapid scale-up to roughly 200,000 users in the near term, with the platform becoming the default—and ultimately exclusive—videoconferencing option for civil servants.
Licences for non‑European services—including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, and GoToMeeting—will not be renewed as ministries migrate, with full deployment targeted by 2027. Officials estimate savings of about €1 million per year for every 100,000 users who move to Visio, while channeling investment into local talent and suppliers.
Europe’s Wider Shift and Pushback on Digital Sovereignty
France is not alone. An Austrian ministry, the Austrian military, the German state of Schleswig‑Holstein, Danish government organizations, and the French city of Lyon have all announced plans to reduce or replace parts of the Microsoft stack with European alternatives. The pattern signals a continental turn toward open technologies and EU jurisdiction for sensitive workloads.
There is dissent. Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm has warned that sovereignty drives could raise prices and slow innovation if they fragment markets. Critics also point to switching costs and potential integration gaps with entrenched productivity suites. Supporters counter that open standards and transparent code reduce vendor lock‑in and enable tailored security controls.
What Changes for Civil Servants Using Visio and Tchap
In practice, agencies will migrate meetings, recurring rooms, and contact lists from US platforms into Visio, adopt Tchap for secure messaging, and standardize on EU-hosted authentication and storage. Training will focus on accessibility, mobile performance, and interoperability with calendars and document workflows.
Success will be measured on reliability and user experience as much as compliance: low-latency video at scale, resilient uptime during peak traffic, usable AI transcripts for records management, and seamless onboarding for new users. If Visio delivers at parity while keeping data under EU law, France will have built a replicable blueprint for public-sector collaboration without US cloud dependencies.
