France has delivered a resounding non, merci to Zoom, Webex, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and the full cadre of other U.S.-based videoconferencing technology vendors.
The development is a direct digital sovereignty play designed to enable French public sector users to use technologies based upon digital infrastructure services that are subject to foreign laws, particularly those regulatory controls emanating from the USA.
The new state-developed and state-built alternative for French users is founded on data infrastructure that exists wholly in-country, so all legal rulings upon that data are administered inside France.
Sacré View!
Not as cheesily named as it perhaps could have been (apologies for the headline, too good to miss), the new default platform is known as Visio. It was developed by the government’s Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM).
Although tabled for public servants initially, the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance, which initiated this project, will no doubt hope that the tool proves popular with enterprise users and consumers at all levels.
“This project is a concrete illustration of the Prime Minister and the Government’s commitment to regaining our digital independence,” said David Amiel, minister delegate for the civil service and state reform. “We cannot risk having our scientific exchanges, our sensitive data, and our strategic innovations exposed to non-European actors. Digital sovereignty is simultaneously an imperative for our public services, an opportunity for our businesses, and insurance against future threats.”
Fancy a Brie-fing?
French public sector workers engaging in online briefings and meetings in the future will be able to use Visio in the knowledge that it has already been stress and functionality tested by tens of thousands of civil servants. The technology is now being further augmented for onward scalability and security extensions (the most likely expansion route needed for any tool that enjoys widespread adoption) as it is rolled out across agencies, ministries and public bodies.
Full rollout of Visio is expected by 2027. Some French public departments, including tax and social security bodies, have already started their migration or completed the switch.
Launched as a pilot program a year ago, Visio already has 40,000 regular users and is being rolled out to 200,000 employees. The CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), the French National Health Insurance Fund, the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFiP), and the Ministry of the Armed Forces are among the first government agencies to adopt the solution nationwide in the first quarter of 2026. The CNRS will replace its Zoom licenses with Visio by the end of March for its 34,000 employees and the 120,000 researchers associated with its research units.
The technology is built to offer transcription of meetings via an artificial intelligence service using speaker separation technologies developed by French startup Pyannote. Projections state that by summer 2026, real-time subtitling will also arrive as a result of technologies developed by the French AI research laboratory Kyutai.
Camen-bert the Cost Anymore
In addition to regaining control over its data sovereignty in the videoconferencing space, French authorities say that this move also represents an opportunity to save money. The discontinuation of paid software licenses from the public sector to the above-mentioned tools is estimated at €1 ($ 1.2) million per year for every 100,000 new users switching from licensed solutions.
