According to a survey published by Tuta, many consumers are abandoning US technology in favor of European options, and the company attributes this to President Donald Trump's "America First" policies, referring to it as "our finest sales pitch."
If you've never heard of it, Tuta is a German startup that focuses heavily on privacy and provides a safe, end-to-end encrypted email and calendar service. In contrast to popular ISPs, Tuta says it uses only open-source software, encrypts almost everything, including calendar events and subject lines, and prevents all trackers and advertisements.
According to the company, this year has been quite successful so far. Compared to early 2024, paying consumers increased by more than 80% in the first half of 2025, and growth was more than four times quicker than it was in the same period the previous year. Even the number of free users increased by 25%.
Why, therefore, are people abandoning US technology? Tuta claims that Trump's policies, particularly the slew of tariffs he enacted this year, are mostly to blame. Tuta also cites the incident involving International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan.
According to reports, Microsoft banned Khan's email account at the US government's request because of penalties related to an ICC probe into Israeli operations in Gaza. He then switched to Swiss service Proton Mail.
Given how frequently these platforms get caught up in political drama, Tuta thinks people have recently begun to feel very uneasy relying on Silicon Valley technology. The company claims that this growing discomfort is pushing consumers to "Go European," a movement that coincides with the "deGoogle" trend, which saw many individuals abandon Big Tech for privacy concerns.
Because US regulations like the CLOUD Act allow American authorities to access data even if it is kept in Europe, the EU is also concerned and wants to shift away from cloud services like Azure.