Sovereignty: Many European officials must say goodbye to WhatsApp and Signal

The era in which sensitive political agreements are made on the fly via WhatsApp or Signal is coming to an end in Europe's government districts. What was long considered a pragmatic solution for quick communication is increasingly being classified by politicians as a security policy and strategic risk. In pursuit of digital sovereignty, numerous European states such as Germany, France, Poland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium have begun to introduce their own communication platforms for their officials and government members.

The NATO and the Bundeswehr are also already swearing by Matrix for an adapted, quasi in-house service. The EU Commission plans to complete the switch to an alternative it can control by the end of the year. Just recently, the Commission prohibited some of its top officials from using Signal group chats. This followed the disclosure of vulnerabilities in a mobile device management system.

This trend is not just about a technical change. It reflects a growing skepticism towards dependence on US companies. WhatsApp belongs to the Meta group, which is based in Silicon Valley. Although Signal is operated by a non-profit foundation, it is also subject to US law and is largely controlled by an open-source community based in the United States. Dutch Digital Minister Willemijn Aerdts sums up the risk to Politico: Communication currently often takes place on platforms over which the state has no control.

Geopolitical risks and growing security concerns

Brandon De Waele, director of the Belgian authority for secure communication, told the online magazine that awareness of data sovereignty has grown across Europe. Security incidents have recently intensified the urgency of this change. Just recently, cybersecurity authorities warned of targeted phishing attacks by Russian groups specifically targeting political actors on WhatsApp and Signal.

The reliability of the end-to-end encryption of US apps is not in question. It is still considered the gold standard for data protection and security. The problem lies more in the lack of manageability.

Professional government solutions such as the Beam app in Belgium or Wire, which is partly used in German authorities, offer functions that consumer apps lack: precise access control, limiting chats to verified employees, and above all, full control over metadata. Even with end-to-end encryption, the latter reveal who communicates with whom and when. For Wire CEO Benjamin Schilz, the use of commercial messengers in large government organizations is therefore a risky step: these products were never developed for such requirements.

Transparency and the "Trump Factor" as Accelerators

Espionage can be prevented much more effectively in a closed environment. In addition to security aspects, transparency and archiving obligations also play a role. In the past, "disappearing messages" repeatedly caused political scandals, for example in the case of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her SMS contacts with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. Own platforms make it possible to document communication in compliance with regulations without compromising confidentiality to the outside world. Activists have been calling for this step for a long time to bring important political decisions out of the digital shadow realm of private apps and back into a controllable framework.

The changed political climate in the US since Donald Trump's renewed inauguration in early 2025 is increasing the urgency in Europe. Observers such as Matthew Hodgson, CEO of the software company Element and co-founder of Matrix, note significantly increased nervousness among European governments in the past twelve months. Events such as US sanctions against international institutions or massive outages at US cloud providers have exposed Europe's vulnerability.

(mho)