beware of EU-washing | ava's blog

beware of EU-washing

24 May, 2026

Among all this talk of European sovereignty and switching to European alternatives in a move to better privacy and less support of Big Tech, I wish for more emphasis on not just blindly copying US products and slapping an EU label on it.

I see news like the Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution backing away from using Palantir and using a software solution from France instead. I’m supposed to feel happy reading this, and admittedly I did not yet dig into ArgonOS deeply - but all I can think of as a first reaction is “I don’t want an EU version of Palantir.”

I don’t want ‘GDPR-compliant’ facial recognition and behavioral surveillance in our cities. I don’t want more privacy-friendly warfare (???). I don’t want more tech-enabled discrimination from next door. I don’t want supposedly European alternative that’s still based on AWS and Microslop.

We need to be critical and take a stand against EU-washing, in which unethical business concepts or structures get painted in a more ethical light using the (increasingly less warranted) good reputation of the EU about human rights. We aren’t better for being from a different area, or just because it’s a different company name slapped on; it’s because we are supposed to have strong consumer protections and rights, resist the promise of easy money through unlimited data mining, and stand up against fascism.

I don’t want us to compete with evil; I don’t want us to stoop to that level at all.

Go hard on these copycats. Taking concepts from Fascism Land isn’t worthy of praise and they don’t deserve you as a customer or fan. Make them prove it first and ask them the hard questions. Boycott their shit if it is the same garbage, go to protests, write to representatives, be vocal online, support NGO’s that work against this.

No one gets a pass for being European. I won’t lower my standards and values.

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Published<br>24 May, 2026

#2026

#tech