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Microsoft destroyed my online life after I called home to Gaza - BBC News

Palestinians calling home to Gaza on Skype have had their digital lives destroyed, after Microsoft closed their email accounts without warning.

BBC News has spoken to 20 Palestinians living abroad who say Microsoft, which owns the voice and video chat app, kicked them out of their accounts. The total number affected is thought to be much higher.

In some cases, these email accounts are more than 15 years old and the users have no way to retrieve emails, contacts or memories.

Microsoft says they violated its terms of service - but will not say how - and the decision is final.

The Gazans say they have no links to Hamas - designated as a terrorist organisation by some Western countries, including the US, where Microsoft is headquartered - and accuse the technology giant, the most valuable company in the world, of persecuting them unfairly.

Squizzy ,

There needs to be an international regulatory process with separate national regulatory agencies to address tech companies over reach. Sony will end any account that does a back charge even if it is a scam. Microsoft do this. You literally cannot get google support to help if you are a small business.

These services, to at least some degree impact lives and livelihoods to a huge extent.

IchNichtenLichten ,
@IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world avatar

“It’s been a week since our last attempt to fuck over our users, we must continue to innovate. Any ideas?”

AceFuzzLord ,

Okay, regardless of what you think about the war going on in Israel, you at least gotta admit that this is fucked up. As if I needed another reason to never trust macrohard.

ReversalHatchery ,

Microsoft says they violated its terms of service - but will not say how - and the decision is final.

Classic Microsoft move. Do you remember what happened to kids and people being forced to register a Microsoft account to not lose their paid license to Minecraft, but who didn’t want to hand out their phone numbers? Yeah. They have somehow “violated the terms of service”, even if they did nothing with their account after registration, other than the license being transferred!

doubtingtammy ,

Apartheid regime

seedd ,

Fuck microsoft. I stopped using their products a long time ago, not only do they steal my data, they make my pay for stuff on top. And despite all that, their products are still garbage quality.

Maeve ,

Is this where we are, or nearly are? https://arplan.org/2020/02/21/mussolini-corporate-state/

Beaver ,
@Beaver@lemmy.ca avatar

I’m glad I switched to proton.

PumpkinEscobar ,

When they’re not recording your desktop in an unencrypted database for AI, boot-looping your computer with bad patches or showing ads in your start menu, they’re disabling your account for calling family to see if they’re still alive. Damn.

SGGeorwell ,

Evil is on parade in our time.

Soup ,

Microsoft: The only thing we’re good at is amazing you with how bad we can truly be.

dvdnet62 ,
@dvdnet62@feddit.nl avatar

Skype is suck nowadays. use Signal

unmagical ,

Or jitsi

cm0002 ,

Nowadays? It’s been sucking since 2011 LMAO

JohnnyCanuck ,
@JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca avatar

Can Signal call landlines or mobiles over the phone network? The big reason these folks are using Skype is to call phones on the phone network.

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Palestinians calling home to Gaza on Skype have had their digital lives destroyed, after Microsoft closed their email accounts without warning.

BBC News has spoken to 20 Palestinians living abroad who say Microsoft, which owns the voice and video chat app, kicked them out of their accounts.

The Gazans say they have no links to Hamas - designated as a terrorist organisation by some Western countries, including the US, where Microsoft is headquartered - and accuse the technology giant, the most valuable company in the world, of persecuting them unfairly.

Salah Elsadi is living in the US and, like many Palestinians abroad, was using Skype to call his wife, children and parents on their mobile phones in Gaza.The internet is frequently disrupted or switched off because of the Israeli military campaign - and standard international calls are very expensive.

With a paid Skype subscription, it is possible to call mobiles in Gaza cheaply - and while the internet is down - so it has become a lifeline to many Palestinians.

But many of those BBC News has spoken to say they have tried many times and are receiving the same blanket response.One, Khalid Obaied, has lost faith with Microsoft.

The original article contains 503 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 60%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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