France is pushing American videoconferencing giants out of its public sector, replacing Microsoft Teams and Zoom with a homegrown platform built to keep sensitive data under national control. The shift, framed as a security and sovereignty imperative, will move hundreds of thousands of civil servants onto a French-built service called Visio over the next few years. It is a clear signal that Paris now sees reliance on foreign collaboration tools as a strategic vulnerability rather than a harmless convenience.
The decision fits into a broader European push to curb dependence on United States cloud and software infrastructure, especially for government and critical services. By betting on a sovereign alternative, France is testing whether a major state can unwind its reliance on American Big Tech without sacrificing usability, resilience, or cost efficiency.
From pandemic staple to security risk
For years, French ministries and agencies leaned heavily on American platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet to keep the machinery of government running, especially once remote work became routine. That era is now ending, as France moves to strip these tools out of official workflows and replace them with a domestic service. Officials have concluded that letting sensitive discussions and metadata transit foreign servers, often governed by extraterritorial laws, is incompatible with long term national security.
Public communications from Paris describe the new platform, Visio, as a way to regain “sovereign control” over state collaboration infrastructure. On Monday, the government announced that it will instead be using the French made videoconference platform Visio, which is already in use inside parts of the administration. The services will be replaced by a homegrown platform called “Visio”, developed domestically, as part of France‘s broader strategy to ensure communications remain secure and sovereign.
A sweeping ban on US video tools
The policy is not a gentle nudge, it is a ban. PARIS has confirmed that France will ban public officials from using American platforms including Google Meet, Zoom and Teams for videoconferencing, cutting off the most widely used tools in one stroke. One detailed account notes that France plans to remove American video conferencing tools including Zoom and Microsoft Teams from government departments and replace them with Visio, a move that will affect central ministries and agencies across the country. In parallel, another report explains that France to ban officials from US video tools including Zoom, Teams, with a spokesperson from Dinum, the state digital directorate, outlining the transition path in Europe.
Officials want to replace the apps within government agencies with a proprietary tool to reduce dependence on non European technology and to ensure that data is stored in Europe. One analysis describes how France has announced plans to replace American videoconferencing platforms like Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom with its own sovereign alternative, highlighting that the project is notably financed by French tech investor Xavier Niel. Another report frames the move as France to ditch US platforms Microsoft Teams, Zoom for a “sovereign platform” amid security concerns, underlining that the government sees this as a turning point regarding digital sovereignty and a way to stop using US digital infrastructure. The same initiative is described in a separate account that says France to ditch US platforms Microsoft Teams, Zoom for a sovereign platform amid security concerns, with the government aiming to migrate around 40,000 users already on Visio to a much larger base.
Inside Visio, France’s ‘sovereign’ alternative
Visio is not a theoretical project but a working product that has quietly been gaining users inside the French state. On Monday, the government announced it will instead be using the French made videoconference platform Visio, which has been tested in several ministries and is designed to run on infrastructure under national jurisdiction. The services will be replaced by a homegrown platform called “Visio”, developed domestically, and officials say this will ensure communications remain secure and sovereign by keeping encryption keys and traffic within European data centers. One report notes that the French government will say au revoir to Microsoft Teams, replaced by a “sovereign platform” that is expected to save about €1 million per year in licensing costs, a reminder that budget pressures sit alongside security in the decision.
The rollout is already visible in the research sector. The CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) will replace Zoom with Visio for over 150,000 users by the end of March, a scale that will stress test the platform’s reliability and feature set. Another account describes how France Ditches Zoom & Teams: 200K Workers Move to Visio, explaining that On January 26, 2026, France declared war on US collaboration tools and set out a timetable for bans on Zoom and Teams. A separate report on France ditches Microsoft Teams and Zoom for Visio, a local alternative, captures the political symbolism, describing how it is “bienvenue” for Visio and “au revoir” for Teams as the government touts improved security and resilience according to the government.
Security fears and the long fight over digital sovereignty
French officials are explicit that the shift is driven by security fears, not just industrial policy. One detailed briefing notes that Officials want to replace the apps within government agencies with a proprietary tool to reduce dependence on non European technology and to ensure that it is stored in Europe, reflecting long standing concerns about foreign surveillance and data access. Another analysis describes how One of the central points of contention between the two superpowers has been the regulation of technology, with The European Union aiming to assert stricter privacy and competition rules in reference to the United States, a backdrop that makes France’s move look less like an outlier and more like the sharp edge of a broader geopolitical trend.
France has been here before. Years earlier, the French government developed an in house messaging app to replace WhatsApp and Telegram use among officials, and the French government open sourced its in house made end to end encrypted tool for internal use as well. That history shows a pattern of trying to pull core communications away from foreign consumer apps and into controlled, auditable systems. The new videoconferencing push fits that pattern, as another report on French authorities to ban Teams, Zoom, other video apps for government use explains, detailing how the goal is to ensure that sensitive state data is stored in Europe and not subject to foreign legal regimes. In that sense, Zoom is simply the first casualty in France’s war on American Big Tech, not the last.
What France’s break with US platforms means next
The scale of the migration will be significant. One account notes that France Ditches Zoom & Teams: 200K Workers Move to Visio, underlining how deeply embedded these tools had become in daily administration. Another report from PARIS explains that France will ban public officials from using American platforms including Google Meet, Zoom and Teams for videoconferencing and is aiming for 250,000 users on Visio, a figure that suggests the platform will become the default for almost the entire central state. A separate analysis of France to scrap Zoom, Meet, Webex for a homegrown rival adds that the CNRS shift is just one piece of a wider plan to remove Zoom, Meet and Webex from public sector environments and steer users to the national alternative.
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