Media / Opinion
July 13, 2026

Rethinking European media infrastructures

© Image: Unsplash/Lightsaber Collection

European media infrastructure is increasingly dependent on a handful of American Big Tech providers. How did we get here and, most importantly, how do we get out?

In June 2025, a group of over 20 experts from academia, industry, civil society and policy spheres met in Amsterdam to discuss these questions. The event – organised by AlgoSoc together with Article 19, the Programmables Infrastructures Project, the AI, Media and Democracy Lab and the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis – included case studies, analysis of EU policy proposals and an exploration of a new infrastructural architecture developed by the European Broadcasting Union.

This report is a summary of the workshop, pointing towards some of the structuring tensions around contemporary media infrastructures. At their core lies a fundamental issue: the development of computational infrastructures over the past two decades has structurally changed the conditions of media production in ways that remain unscrutinised. As such, there is a great deal of uncertainty when it comes to regulating media infrastructures beyond platforms, such as cloud computing and end-devices. Yet, such regulation is fundamental to ensure media independence. Only by including these aspects in the discussions around digital sovereignty can we aspire to develop solutions that address core issues of dependency rather than further re-enforcing them.

Rethinking European media infrastructures: Workshop report

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15849582

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