Comment by AnthonyMouse

> If (say) Ford decides they don't like the government of (say) Belgium, and don't want to sell them any more transit vans (or whatever), that's not really a huge deal. Belgium has the vans already, and they can just get another supplier for the next set.

That's a pretty significant problem if Ford was the only places you can get certain parts or the only company that can do certain types of service etc., because then you have a huge fleet of vehicles you can't efficiently continue to operate.

But then it's the same solution. Before you buy something, require it to be using standard interfaces and have multiple viable independent suppliers for parts and service rather than being locked into a monopoly.

Which is how it should be for digital services. It's fine to pay some company to run physical infrastructure as long as it's a fungible commodity that allows you to switch providers like you can switch brands of toilet paper.