Technology

59605 readers

4202 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

1244

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

279 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 0 points 4 months ago (3 children)

While I agree enthusiastically, does Skype even have a dominant market position, let alone a monopoly?

[–] Prandom_returns@lemm.ee 10 points 4 months ago

I'm talking Microsoft. Having this much control over means of communication is alarming. And Microsoft continues to grow.

Hypothetically, I wonder if they can just block Microsoft accounts alltogether, denying access to (now, kind of mandatory MS account) Windows machines.

[–] dev_null@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Why does it matter? If they ban your Microsoft account because you had an upside down Xbox sticker on your fridge, is it relevant if Microsoft has a monopoly on sticker manufacturing?

Skype doesn't matter because they don't ban you from Skype, they ban you from everything, including things they do have a dominant market position on. And also from Skype, which doesn't matter as much.

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

When I posted that comment I was thinking specifically about Skype, not MS as a whole. I agree MS is well more than large enough that it needs regulation.

[–] oo1@lemmings.world 1 points 4 months ago

It's the "bundling" angle again, very hard to prove the dominant position. But them linking it all to the one account is an important feature that ties the bundle together.

[–] uis@lemm.ee -1 points 4 months ago

Ok, oligopoly. Happy?