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Microsoft is reportedly banning Palestinians in the U.S. for life for calling relatives in Gaza (www.windowscentral.com)

submitted 4 months ago by Linkerbaan@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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A BBC investigation reveals that Microsoft is permanently banning Palestinians in the U.S. and other countries who use Skype to call relatives in Gaza.

Reportedly, Microsoft has been banning and wiping the accounts of users who have leveraged Skype to contact relatives in Gaza. In some cases, email accounts over a decade old have been locked, destroying access to banking accounts, OneDrive storage, and beyond.

United States resident Salah Elsadi lost his account of over 15 years in the dragnet. "I've had this Hotmail for 15 years. They banned me for no reason, saying I have violated their terms — what terms? Tell me. I've filled out about 50 forms and called them many many times." Eiad Hametto from Saudi Arabia echoed the report, "We are civilians with no political background who just wanted to check on our families. They’ve suspended my email account that I’ve had for nearly 20 years. It was connected to all my work. They killed my life online."

Many of the users affected by the bans expressed that Microsoft may be falsely labelling them as Hamas

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[–] recapitated@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I love these ideas but self hosting is simply not a solution for average citizens who aren't skilled at such things. To them it would be like paving their own highway with bridges and also maintaining and policing them. It might be easy for you and me, but that's because we have training and experience and we chose this way. It's not a justifiable opportunity cost for most people.

I think a different kind of org than the googles metas and Microsofts of the world is in need, like a compute & communications co-op that can actually compete on that level of capability offerings, accessibility, performance and security.

[–] TheFin@leminal.space 0 points 4 months ago

Absolutely agree

[–] smb@lemmy.ml 0 points 4 months ago

i think it should not be too difficult to compete with m$ security, that is at least true for the state of the last 30 years or maybe more.

But something like a non-profit organisation - or a bunch of them- that make self-hosting for essential services (like email, messenger, video calls) a charm could be a big win for billions of peoples.

[–] Lyricism6055@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago

Self hosting email is a terrible idea. Your Internet goes out? All your emails are black holed