An ordinary morning. And then everything stops.
Let’s imagine: emergency services can no longer access patient records. Courts no longer have access to case files. Transport systems come to a standstill. Digital identities become inaccessible. This scenario is neither the result of a failure nor of a spectacular cyberattack. No—this outcome stems from a political decision. In Black-Out, Stanislas de Rémur and Cédric Mermilliod deliver a hard-hitting narrative that, blending dystopia, pedagogy and concrete solutions, raises a staggering question: what would happen if the United States suspended Europe’s access to its digital services?
A chilling fiction… grounded in real facts
Combining an ultra-realistic multi-perspective narrative with a documented investigation, Black-Out follows, hour by hour, a day in which France tips into crisis: a lawyer deprived of case files, a hospital operating in degraded mode after losing patient data, a mayor without a budget, employees without pay, families stranded on the highway, an influencer deprived of their work tools…
Behind the fiction lies a stark reality: Europe has entrusted the vast majority of its sensitive data, infrastructures and digital services to players subject to U.S. law—over which we therefore have no control.
Cloud, messaging services, operating systems, payments, collaborative tools, software updates…
This is not science fiction, but rather a narrative exploration of a documented systemic risk, made possible by the Cloud Act, extraterritorial interference, and the extreme concentration of the digital market.
The real issue: digital sovereignty
Black-Out is neither an anti-American pamphlet nor a technophobic manifesto.
The authors state it clearly: the problem is not the technology, but the loss of control.
Digital sovereignty is neither a luxury nor a slogan.
It is a condition for our security, our competitiveness and our collective freedom.
The book shows how a dependency long perceived as comfortable becomes, in times of geopolitical tension, a powerful lever of pressure.
A book in line with current events, notably
- Heightened geopolitical tensions between Europe and the United States
- Debates around the Cloud Act, DMA and DSA
- The massive digitalization of public and healthcare services
- The growing fragility of critical infrastructures
- The persistent illusion of a “neutral” and apolitical digital space