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Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

bbc.com

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Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#61

Post by 9991 »

flutas wrote: post #47
pgt wrote: post #3

This is why I have my own domain and control the MX records on the DNS on it, so that I can reroute email to a new email provider, if needed (I pay for Fastmail). Another nice thing about having a catch-all on own domain is that you can sign up to each service with a unique email address, e.g. @ , which makes it easy to see if any services ever sold your address.

> you can sign up to each service with a unique email address, e.g. @ , which makes it easy to see if any services ever sold your address. Pro tip on this, use gibberish if you want a true canary. I know it's tempting to use microsoft@ or ms@ or msft@ etc, but companies are getting smarter about selling emails and filter those out.

Problem solved!

Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#62

Post by bhouston »

invalidname wrote: post #56
bhouston wrote: post #8

Was this decision made in Redmond or in Israel? Microsoft has offices in Israel and these offices are likely responsible for things happening in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Israel is currently at "war" with Gaza and having Israeli employees of Microsoft having the ability to disable anyone's account calling civilians in Gaza is pretty horrible. Is Microsoft via Skype and Hotmail participating in what Israel's lea…

It has R&D centers and local business centers. Skype is not in Israel and there's no reason for a VoIP solution to route through a country local facility. The "complete siege" ended ages ago. Israel provides power, food etc.

It isn't just Skype, their hotmail accounts were also disabled. Many local countries definitely do have authority over services provided in their countries.

I would guess these shutdown orders came from Israeli security services and then were routed though Microsoft Israel to be enacted.

> The "complete siege" ended ages ago. Israel provides power, food etc.

Sure, whatever you say.

Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#63

Post by Matl »

slibhb wrote: post #53
jimnotgym wrote: post #6

These companies want to become as ubiquitous as a public utility. Therefore they should be regulated like a public utility

Regulations are why Microsoft is banning users who call Gaza. The real solution here is to use Signal (or something like it). And I don't mean to criticize Microsoft or regulations. Microsoft is faced with an impossible task here, I assume they're doing the best they can.

> Regulations are why Microsoft is banning users who call Gaza.

That sounds an awful lot like simply being a Palestinian is being criminalized.

Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#64

Post by piva00 »

nimbius wrote: post #23

as of 2023 the US officially sanctions 26 countries. If we are to expect that for every phone call to one of these 26 untouchables we will receive holy retribution from the US corporate class, then im afraid sanctions have defeated the very west they were intended to empower. Microsoft has an infuriating habit of doing this; its not just a one-off. They routinely lockout international github users and feign innocent…

> Microsoft has an infuriating habit of doing this; its not just a one-off. They routinely lockout international github users and feign innocent compliance when caught.

Two Iranian co-workers have gone through some Kafkaesque bullshit with Github blocking them, even though both are living in Europe for more than a decade they got flagged and had their accounts suspended, taking months to re-activate them.

Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#65

Post by hedora »

rlpb wrote: post #39
jimnotgym wrote: post #6

These companies want to become as ubiquitous as a public utility. Therefore they should be regulated like a public utility

Indeed. I think that if a person cannot participate in modern society without being a customer with only a few competitors to choose from, then such businesses should have a "universal service obligation" and not be allowed to refuse service without a good reason. Such a reason should be mediated by the legal system. For example a major chain convenience store with few similar competitors could ban someone for shopli…

Suing isn't as useful as you'd expect. It costs $10,000's and months to even get to court.

Criminal liability for improper bans, and allowing citizens to directly charge the company with the crime (some states do this) would probably be more practical.

Alternatively, some variant of streamlined court (similar to small-claims court) could be established, where you could automatically use the court if the defendant had already been sued more than 10 times in the last decade for the last thing. The court would provide some sort of legal or financial resources to allow the customers to quickly sue without paying out of pocket, or spending much of their own time.

Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#66

Post by andsoitis »

imaginationra wrote: post #4
andsoitis wrote: post #2

> can no longer access his bank accounts, which are tied to his Hotmail account, he says. Come on. This is such exaggeration. Surely he has contacted the banks (note: plural as per article) and he can access his accounts. Not even one? Banks routinely handle identification via phone to access your account and transact.

One of my banks uses email two factor auth- if I lost access to the email account and had no accessible backup email set I can see how being locked out of the email account would deny access to the bank account.

Well, if you truly cannot operate without access to your email account should also have a game plan for if you forget your password to your email and cannot access your email account.

Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#68

Post by technothrasher »

pgt wrote: post #3

This is why I have my own domain and control the MX records on the DNS on it, so that I can reroute email to a new email provider, if needed (I pay for Fastmail). Another nice thing about having a catch-all on own domain is that you can sign up to each service with a unique email address, e.g. @ , which makes it easy to see if any services ever sold your address.

Fastmail handles this "unique email address" scenario really well, even tying into Bitwarden so you can insert a unique address into a web form with just a couple clicks, and then efficiently block/remove the email address later, as desired.

Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#69

Post by dartos »

slibhb wrote: post #53
jimnotgym wrote: post #6

These companies want to become as ubiquitous as a public utility. Therefore they should be regulated like a public utility

Regulations are why Microsoft is banning users who call Gaza. The real solution here is to use Signal (or something like it). And I don't mean to criticize Microsoft or regulations. Microsoft is faced with an impossible task here, I assume they're doing the best they can.

> I assume they're doing the best they can.

I think you mean “they’re doing the absolute minimum to barely meet their compliance requirements”

Re: Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say

#70

Post by kazinator »

viraptor wrote: post #20
DuckyC wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but surely you can show up at your bank with identification and get the email changed?

Depends how close your closest physical branch is. It may be hours away because of where you live. Or it may be a flight away because you're abroad.

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