The Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and State Modernisation is working on the so-called Germany Stack, which is intended to “create a sovereign, European-compatible and interoperable digital infrastructure for federal, state and local governments” as “national sovereign technology platform”. Until the end of November 2025, a public consultation is running, to which the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has today submitted a statement (open new link in German).
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The Germany Stack can only achieve its stated aim if it consistently relies on Free Software. A proprietary stack would merely replace existing dependencies with new ones. Proprietary software developed by manufacturers in Germany or Europe does not provide the necessary conditions for sovereignty, creates new lock-in effects, and can at any time be withdrawn from access by public authorities – for instance, if a manufacturer becomes insolvent or is bought by a non-European competitor. Trust issues also remain when the code is intransparent, and security bugs may persist if there is no right to fix the software. Defining availability as Free Software as a criterion for components of the Stack does not disadvantage manufacturers of proprietary software. Rather, this decision creates an incentive for all manufacturers to produce and publish Free Software, from which not only public administrations but also the European economy and society as a whole will benefit.
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How does digital sovereignty work in this hypothetical situation:
Europe changes the law. Linux now must know if the user is a child. Linux now tells websites when a minor is there.
A non-EU country passes digital anonymity. Linux must enforce the ability for users to anonymise their PII. Linux now allows users to lie to websites about their age.
How was the EU digitally sovereign in this situation?
heres my point: You cant have “sovereignty” and still be beholden to the laws of other countries affecting you. It turns out, the EU cannot be the sole director free free software. The EU is participating in a global, international, community-led effort and have to adapt to how that community fucking works. Its called being a good participant in a society, you know? Unless the EU is willing to foot the bill?
To my european friends: You cannot have digital sovereignty with free software and still want that free software to enforce your laws. It needs more work to be done on your end for your goals to be met. This plan for public safety is dead on arrival if your lawmakers continue their efforts to destroy the free software you allegedly want to depend on.
NGL, if somehow a linux commit about collecting any data passed, there would immediately be a fork on the horizon the moment it passed
And that fork would be criminal to be used in the EU (in this hypothetical), so risk being fined as a corp etc. This is how different classes of things begin. There will be legal linux and illegal linux. Right now there is no such thing as illegal linux.
Think of anti cheat. If government-allowed software required kernel level anti cheat" would you want that to make the world safe? Maybe you install linux without the government anticheat, but now no software works for you. You cant use the banks that take your direct deposit now because you run an illegal computer for anonymity.
isn’t that just graphine/android in an alternate universe where graphine is illegal (also, since linux is libre, wouldn’t there be a way to run the anti-cheat in a sandbox)