Microsoft blocks email account of International Court of Justice prosecutor after Trump sanctions. Critics say: 'We urgently need alternatives.'
Microsoft is receiving increasing criticism for blocking the email account of the Prosecutor General of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan.
US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the Hague-based court in February after a panel of ICC judges issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in the Gaza Strip in November.
The court has been virtually paralyzed since then, the AP reports. One reason for this is that it relies heavily on service providers like Microsoft.
Microsoft immediately blocked Khan's email account, the AP reports . The 55-year-old Briton was forced to switch to the Swiss email provider Proton (ps: we don't recommend it ) , ICC officials described.
Khan’s bank accounts in his home country, Great Britain, have also been frozen. Even employees of a civil society organization that plays a central role in gathering evidence and identifying witnesses to war crimes have withdrawn funds from US bank accounts to avoid seizure.
The Open-Source Business Alliance (OSBA), also known as the Federal Association for Digital Sovereignty, is concerned about American companies playing sheriff's deputies. It calls Microsoft's actions "unprecedented in this context and with this impact."
OSBA President Peter Ganten says: The sanctions against the Hague criminal court ordered by the US and implemented by Microsoft “should be a wake-up call for all those responsible for the secure availability of government and private IT and communications infrastructures”. “We cannot rely on companies that are not under our jurisdiction.”
According to Ganten, there is an “urgent need for alternatives that we can control and shape.”
The explosive nature of the situation becomes clear when one realizes that Microsoft cannot act differently in this case due to the political and legal situation in the US.
This situation should be seen as a warning: Not only email accounts, but also cloud services and software products could be blocked. The US president could “digitally shut down any organization that depends on American technology” with an executive order.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
