cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/24014988
This summer Kimberly Prost, a Canadian judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC), arrived at her home in The Hague and, as was her habit, called out “Alexa”.
There was silence. The voice-activated assistant did not respond. “Alexa was dead. She wouldn’t talk to me,” Prost recalled in an interview with The Irish Times.
Prost had been added to the United States’ sanctions list, because in 2020 she ruled to authorise an investigation into possible atrocities in Afghanistan, including by US troops. Amazon, obliged to implement the sanctions as a US company, had cancelled her account.
It was just the start of what Prost describes as a “pervasive, negative effect” of the sanctions across all aspects of her life, which has shut her out from much of the international banking system.
…
“The purpose is clear. They have said, basically, we’re imposing these sanctions because of decisions you’ve taken in your role as a judge. So effectively, they are interfering directly with the independence of a judge,” Prost said.
“I can’t think of any other way to describe it but an attack on the independence of the judiciary and the International Criminal Court’s independence as an institution, which is why I’m so interested in the public hearing this.”
I’m a security engineer and I can personally confirm that trump has personally done more to advance tech in Europe that any other leader.
There is currently a “Sovereign cloud” arms race in European tech where governments are rushing to migrate out of US based solutions in favor for their own if possible and other European countries if otherwise.
It’s been great for the industry and for the end users. I’m in the US myself, but even I am benefiting because more competition = more options and now I can have services where that orange fuck we have to call president doesn’t have a say or access to my data.