European-alternatives.eu Experiencing Massive Traffic Increase Since January
mastodon.socialWhat's telling from their analytics is that this isn't just a knee-jerk reaction - the engagement metrics show people seriously evaluating options rather than panic-clicking (spending almost 3 minutes on the website).
I'm particularly curious which sectors are seeing the most interest - cloud services? Productivity tools? Communication platforms? That data could help prioritize where European companies should focus innovation efforts.
It is somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction. That said, European governments and media have been serving a relentless propaganda. It started with the invasion of Ukraine but has recently taken an even more sinister turn. This sort of thing does work and does change public opinion.
It's not propaganda if it is true.
You believe that what you believe is true (you have to by definition). But is it? What is truth? That's the whole point of propaganda in shaping public opinion.
It can also be very subtle because what you are told may be "true" but may not be the whole truth and may not give a comprehensive account of all the facts at play. I think that's broadly what separates propaganda in Western countries (where outright lies are difficult to sustain) vs propaganda in dictatorships.
In Europe the reactions to apparent changes in US policy are overblown, the "Russian threat" is overblown. Both are for a reason. But it seems that people have been so "prepared" that governments can announce doubling defence budgets (with what money?), conscription, the EU stepping into defence and almost no-one blinks.
Which part of it is overblown? The loss of trust in US being a stable enough partner to trust them, or the outrage regarding US bullying tactics in international politics?
Threatening to invade your allies has consequences, and the damage has already been done.
Edit: spelling
> the reactions to apparent changes in US policy are overblown
A friendly country seeing its upper hand, and deciding to leverage it to squeeze your economy... what is overblown about being wildly concerned about that exactly? Its coming on top of an inflation driven affordability crisis, and many people are already at their limits. Having prices further increase is a really big deal for many people.
> the "Russian threat" is overblown.
Country with one of largest nuclear arsenals in world building up military, supressing dissent, invading neighbors - none of these statements are twisting facts. Even if you didn't know Putin's aims, it would be extremely concerning.
> the "Russian threat" is overblown
You mean the current war Russia started in Ukraine, which is part of Europe, and where countless people die? Russia is not a threat, we're way past that.
Russia WILL attack the Baltic States in a few years after they're done with Ukraine, this is a fact.
> changes in US policy are overblown
Trump threatening to annex Greenland (Europe!), Canada, or Panama canal is overblown? He's the president and chief or the biggest army in the world, if anything it's underblown. The only reason this is not considered a war declaration is because everybody knows he's mentally unstable and dumb as a brick.
> You believe that what you believe is true (you have to by definition). But is it? What is truth? That's the whole point of propaganda in shaping public opinion.
I don't know what you think your point is. Back in the real world, having dependencies on services provided by the US became a serious risk. De-risking is what every single decent project manager does. Only a moron drops by a discussion on risks and argues that a risk scenario doesn't matter because of propaganda.
this thing that a comment slightly not aligned gets downvoted, must stop
I’d argue it is downvoted because it contradicts many people’s perception of the truth - including mine. I say perception because we don’t have all the information - and never will - in complex cases like global politics. However, given the limited information we all have at hand, there are more and less reasonable conclusions to draw, and the downvoted comment is in many people’s eyes drawing unreasonable conclusions.
Well if what has happened over the years and accelerated since Trump was elected does not raise red flags in curious and inquisitive minds then nothing will...
My take is that at least part of what is going on is to overblow risks (especially the risk of a Russian "invasion") to make the public accept a future proposal to create an EU army, which in turn means a further critical transfer of power to the EU. Let's see how the next 12 months play out.
YTD, they have already seen 1.1M unique visitors, compared to just 0.3M in all of 2024.
They’ve also opened up their analytics data here: https://plausible.io/european-alternatives.eu
Thanks for the link
Noteworthy percentage of Firefox users.
Americans are largely unaware about what's happening in the rest of the world. Reelecting Trump means very few countries will trust the US anymore. Electing him once, ok, a fluke. Twice? The system is rotten and unstable.
I'm fairly sure Ukraine, Canada, Panama, Denmark and the EU as a whole, they're all turning from US allies to indiferent at best. People are actively looking for non US products where they can.
Trump, like Putin, will probably be remembered as the gravedigger for his country.
Does Russian count as ‘European’ alternative?
The Russian web shows an interesting alternate universe where western copyright is not a thing.
If the war leads to the downfall of Russia, I worry that the last vestiges of the ‘free’ internet that helps billions of people in third world countries access content will be gone forever.
It’s already partially the case with a good fraction of servers in Ukraine gone.
Nope, they are only considering companies from the EU, EEA, EFTA, or DCFTA [1].
So basically EU countries + Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine. Notably, this does not include the UK or Russia.
Yeah sure, Russia is the last vestige of the free internet. That's certainly a hot take
Free in quotes, but yeah.
Try to host a server allowing people to download movies or songs and you’ll see how fast you are offline in most countries.
Check out how far governments went to snag the Pirate Bay folks and more recently the various darknet markets.
free != no laws enforced. you have a pretty narrow definition of free. I'd certainly choose the free where I don't "fall out of a window" for the wrong opinion, media is free and elections are free and democratic.
>you have a pretty narrow definition of free
I was talking about the freedom of sharing things on the internet, not defining free.
> free != no laws enforced
Great that you bring up laws.
Step 1: Make a law against criticizing the state or leaders or laws...
Step 2: Make people fall out of windows for breaking that law.
> If the war leads to the downfall of Russia, I worry that the last vestiges of the ‘free’ internet that helps billions of people in third world countries access content will be gone forever.
Sci-hub. Edward Snowden.
What does 'russian web' have to do with servers in Ukraine?
Before the war Ukraine, as most CIS countries, were mostly using the Russian internet. Yandex, VK, etc.
> Yandex, VK, etc.
These resources have been banned since 2015 here.
2017
Before that they even had offices in Kyiv.
Free porn transcends borders and geopolitics I guess.
What? Nobody is asking for the “downfall” of Russia. Just that Putin stops trying to rebuilt the USSR geographically and killing Ukrainians.
If war does break out and Russia or many countries including Russia is destroyed that’d be horrible.
There’s so much more to do in the world in 2025 so much more we could do as a species but as a species we seem hellbent on killing ourselves.
Not nobody. Some of us would love the prospect of not having Russia border our countries anymore.
I wonder how that future might pan out. If it’s like the modern Balkan countries, all good.
If it’s like six warlords with nukes, all bets are off.
I don’t think there are many people of such caliber in the country as Putin has gotten rid of any potential competition. It’s likely Western countries would be able to sign Budapest-like memorandums and get those nukes in favor of some guarantees.
> get those nukes in favor of some guarantees
After Ukraine, no. And if Poland gets nukes you can bet that every country in that region will.
even the parent poster isn't asking for the downfall of russia
> Nobody is asking for the “downfall” of Russia.
It's one of the likely outcomes of the war unless someone with a decent amount of influence in Russia takes Putin down.
Note how this is personified in the official propaganda and media. This is not "Russia", this is "Putin". This is a typical tactic to deny that whatever actions Russia has been taken reflect deeper interests and (Russian) public opinion but is instead only the result of a "mad man".
My university had a number of Russian grad students, they were all lowkey supportive of the war.
Anecdata sure … but I know some Russians that left Russia because of the war and unfortunately I know some that support it, too.
Buuuuut to say that Russia === Putin and they’re the same in that his war is their war is insane. IIF they had real open elections and still went to war then I’d say you have a point. But they don’t. It’s very much a war he is doing not that they want.
Can I find a non-US HN like news forum where I can find interesting news or comments aboout technologies?
This is just shifting your eggs from one basket into another. Yes, the current basket is on fire but we should assume any basket can be lit on fire just as easily.
I’d love to see somebody nail the UX of distributed compute in your home that you own. A box I can buy that is similar UX to managing a SaaS account after plugging it into my router, with automatic management, updates, encrypted backup across cloud providers, and an App Store for services I can install on this appliance that gives self-hosted apps a means to monetize. Then scale that foundation up to business needs and really profit.
These ideas have existed before but IMO nobody nailed the UX and most people didn’t believe we’d light our own basket on fire for fun back then, so the market wasn’t there.
> This is just shifting your eggs from one basket into another. Yes, the current basket is on fire but we should assume any basket can be lit on fire just as easily.
I don't think so. That's like complaining about the decision to change a flat tire because all other tires can blow up just as easily.
Can you present a single objective argument that rejects the idea of de-risking your choice of cloud provider?
I wouldn't just call this "shifting your eggs from one basket into another". One of the baskets is on fire, because people decided to light it on fire. So we are also telling these people, that we are really not willing to accept this.
This is a clear message to those who have not yet lighted their baskets on fire not to make the same mistake, because we can and will find enough other baskets. Looking at the current stock market this does send a strong message.
Peter Thiel, Curtis Yarvin and the likes want to create a system where democracy is replaced by consumer spending decisions, because they are narcissistic enough to believe they will be the ones on to after their proposed system change. Telling them clearly: "No you won't be on top after this" is an absolutely important message to send.