> I don't think it's accurate to solely blame the EU when this is in response to legislation that gives/gave the US access to all types of personal data on European citizens.

I would argue that the Americans getting better privacy protections and working with other countries instead of forcing American companies to behave illegally abroad would be a much better solution than the Europeans watering down their privacy laws.

American companies will set up independent shell companies or subsidiaries to serve European customers anyway. Microsoft and Amazon are never going to voluntary leave a market of 400M customers. Doing so would leave too much room for a competitor to grow and then threaten them. So if fragmenting the web means that Europeans get the same services as Americans, but with better privacy, then I am all for it.

Europeans are to blame for the flaws in the GDPR, not for doing their thing without the blessing of the Americans.

I agree. Hopefully this is temporary and they can figure out a reasonable compromise. As a Swede I do feel that parts of the EU (with Germany and France) are heading in the wrong direction. Those are not countries famous for their entrepreneurship and it seems like their first instincts in relation to the US are usually protectionist.