As Dutch lawmakers in the parliament’s digital affairs committee met Tuesday to debate the issue, they received a petition signed by 140,000 people calling on the government to block the acquisition.
“If the Dutch government does something that [U.S. President Donald] Trump doesn’t like, he can shut down our government with one push of a button,” the petition reads. “That’s a big danger.”
The debate over DigiD has put the spotlight on a topic that has been simmering for a while.
With the Netherlands a long-time proponent of the transatlantic relationship, Dutch society is built on U.S. technology and IT services — as is the country’s government. That’s now seen as a glaring security issue as Trump fires off threats toward Europe.
Two-thirds of the domain names of Dutch governments, schools and other critical companies rely on at least one U.S. cloud provider, research by the Dutch public broadcaster showed Sunday, with Microsoft the frontrunner.
“We are the most Microsoft-loving country of the whole world,” said Bert Hubert, a Dutch cybersecurity expert and former intelligence watchdog. “The Dutch government uses more Microsoft than the U.S. government.”