Europe Is Building Walls Around Its Digital Infrastructure

The Netherlands blocked a US takeover of DigiD operator Solvinity, the company that runs the national digital identity system. The same week, Spain blocked Polymarket and Kalshi over gambling licensing. These are two different regulatory moves but they reflect a single underlying shift: European governments are getting more aggressive about who controls critical digital infrastructure, and American tech companies are in the crosshairs.

HN commenters on the Netherlands story were broadly supportive, noting the entire Dutch parliament had been pushing for this. The DigiD system is used by millions of Dutch citizens for tax, healthcare, and government services. Handing operational control to a US company, particularly in the current geopolitical climate, was a political impossibility regardless of the commercial logic.

The Polymarket and Kalshi blocking is narrower but connected. Spain's position is that prediction markets are gambling and require gambling licenses, a framing that Polymarket has fought everywhere it operates. The broader EU regulatory posture is increasingly: if you want to operate here, you play by our rules, and our rules are not going to be written around your business model.