Loss of Trust in U.S. Prompts International Criminal Court to Ditch Microsoft 365 for Open Source Alternative

TechRadar, summarizing this German-language report from Handelsblatt:

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is looking to replace its internal work environments to move away from US-made software in fear of retaliation from the US administration.

The Microsoft software currently used in the Hague-based ICC is likely to be replaced with Open Desk, a German collaboration software alternative which is open source, meaning developers have chosen to release the source code — opening it up to scrutiny and often meaning that bugs and vulnerabilities are picked up quickly by the community. [...]

Early in 2025, Chief Prosecutor for the ICC Kamrin Khan, after being hit with sanctions from the Trump administration, was disconnected from his email service. This action was thought to be from Microsoft supporting US sanctions — although the firm denied this, with a spokesperson stating; “at no point did Microsoft cease or suspend its services to the ICC.”

This sparked fears that US tech firms could flip a ‘kill switch’ and cut digital services on orders of Trump — outlining the need to become less dependent on US technology, with firms like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon dominating Europe’s digital services and cloud markets.

This is what makes US technology firms’ support for Trump so confounding. It’s easy to see the short-term benefits (e.g. tariff exemptions), but just as easy to see the long-term reputational harm. The US was long seen as the most trustworthy powerful nation in the world. Now it’s one of the least trustworthy. Why would companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Amazon tie their own reputations to Trump’s? Trump’s reign of abject corruption, ignorance, and personality-driven retribution — and these companies’ support for all of it — will be remembered long after Trump himself is gone.

I’m not calling on these companies to outright oppose the Trump administration. But there’s a lot of space between outright opposition and helping to fund Trump’s illegal vanity ballroom on the White House grounds.

★ Friday, 31 October 2025