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France will replace the American platforms Microsoft Teams and Zoom with its own domestically developed video conferencing platform, which will be used in all government departments by 2027, the country announced on Monday.
The move is part of France’s strategy to stop using foreign software vendors, especially those from the United States, and regain control over critical digital infrastructure. It comes at a crucial moment as France, like Europe, reaches a turning point regarding digital sovereignty.
“The aim is to end the use of non-European solutions and guarantee the security and confidentiality of public electronic communications by relying on a powerful and sovereign tool,” said David Amiel, minister for the civil service and state reform.
On Monday, the government announced it will instead be using the French-made videoconference platform Visio. The platform has been in testing for a year and has around 40,000 users.
What is Visio?
Visio is part of France’s Suite Numérique plan, a digital ecosystem of sovereign tools designed to replace the use of US online services such as Gmail and Slack. These tools are for civil servants and not for public or private company use.
The platform also has an artificial intelligence-powered meeting transcript and speaker diarization feature, using the technology of the French start-up Pyannote.
Viso is also hosted on the French company Outscale’s sovereign cloud infrastructure, which is a subsidiary of French software company Dassault Systèmes.
The French government said that switching to Visio could cut licensing costs and save as much as €1 million per year for every 100,000 users.
The move also comes as Europe has questioned its overreliance on US information technology (IT) infrastructure following US cloud outages last year.
“This strategy highlights France’s commitment to digital sovereignty amid rising geopolitical tensions and fears of foreign surveillance or service disruptions,” Amiel said.