[German]Short article of the type "Digital sovereignty: have you finally heard the shot". Microsoft has blocked the email account of the chief prosecutor of the International Court of Justice – due to sanctions imposed by the US government under Trump. The same applies to a Chinese genome company and with a Chinese university.
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Email account of ICC Chief Prosecutor blocked
I received the facts from several sources. In February 2025, the US administration under President Trump sanctioned the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan. The aim is to force the court to stop investigating Israeli attacks in the Gaza.
Microsoft locks out ICC chief prosecutor
The following tweet picks up on this: The US government has threatened that any person or organization that provides financial, material or technical support to Khan will face fines or imprisonment. Khan is currently suspending his role anyway, as there are allegations of sexual harassment and he wants to wait for an official investigation.
As a result of Trump's order, Khan's official Microsoft email account was blocked and his British bank accounts were frozen. In addition, all 900 ICC staff members have been banned from entering the United States as they are accused of conducting "unlawful" investigations into alleged Israeli war crimes.
Two U.S.-based human rights organizations have also confirmed that they have ended their cooperation with the ICC, according to the post above. A senior executive confirmed that staff are now actively avoiding communication with court officials for fear of retaliation from the US government. There is this AP report with some details.
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I have reported several times here on the blog about arbitrary account blocking by US companies (Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.). It was always said "these are private accounts, it doesn't happen with companies". Now we have proof to the contrary. Microsoft has not yet commented on the event.
Chinese genome company and university locked out
And the next Microsoft moves came in China. A German blog reader wrote "It can happen that quickly if you rely on Microsoft services and cloud etc.". Microsoft is cutting Chinese companies' access to its services and cloud due to pressure from the Trump administration. The reader linked to the SCMP article Microsoft abruptly cuts services to Chinese university, genomics firm.
Companies in China receive the termination of their Microsoft product subscriptions. Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou sent a notice to faculty and students last week Tuesday (May 13, 2025) stating that Microsoft 365 services – including OneDrive, OneNote and SharePoint – will be discontinued on Thursday afternoon (May 15, 2025). "Please log in to Microsoft 365 as soon as possible to retrieve your personal data and files," reads the email from the university's Network and Information Center, which was seen by the South China Morning Post.
An employee at the university's IT help desk said it was Microsoft's decision to terminate the school's business account. Days earlier, BGI Group (a leading Chinese genome analysis company) had suddenly been blocked from accessing its booked Microsoft services. This included Outlook emails and OneDrive. Two employees of the company explained that the company was surprised by the sudden suspension of the service and had to look for alternatives. The company then switched to the "emergency use" of the WPS office suite from Kingsoft in Beijing.
Microsoft's charm offensive pulverized?
At the end of April 2025, Microsoft launched a "major charm offensive" and announced major investments in data centers in Europe in a blog post Microsoft announces new European digital commitments by Brad Smith, Microsoft's Vice Chairman.
This was intended to counter concerns among European customers that Trump would cut them off from US services. Microsoft is aware that European laws apply to the company's business practices in Europe. European competition law and the Digital Markets Act were mentioned.
Microsoft stated that it would maintain Europe's digital resilience even in the face of geopolitical volatility. By building a European Cloud for Europe, Microsoft is committed to helping Europe navigate the uncertain geopolitical and trade environment and better manage risk by strengthening the continent's digital resilience. It looks as if Microsoft has just pulverized these "castles in the cloud" of IT managers outside of the U.S.A. under pressure from the US government under Trump.
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