They say it has left them unable to access bank accounts and job offers - and stopped them using Skype, which Microsoft owns, to contact relatives in war-torn Gaza.
Microsoft says they violated its terms of service - a claim they dispute.
“They killed my life online,” said Eiad Hametto, who lives in Saudi Arabia.
“They’ve suspended my email account that I’ve had for nearly 20 years - It was connected to all my work,” he told the BBC.
He also said being cut off from Skype was a huge blow for his family.
The internet is frequently disrupted or switched off there because of the Israeli military campaign - and standard international calls are very expensive.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on 7 October, which killed about 1,200 people. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 38,000 people have been killed in the war.
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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.
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Oh, but, antisemitism is the problem. Yeah. It seems like the Israelis have completely forgotten what happen to the Jews in Germany. No concern or compassion for history.
You have to understand during WW2 Zionists (including Netanyahu’s mentor figure) literally tried to ally with the Nazis against the British who controlled Palestine at the time.
Israel didn’t forget what happened during the holocaust, they just don’t give a shit. If anything if got them their land and people to come colonise it.
Israel gave more than a shit about the Holocaust, they expected the survivors to come and colonize Israel… but they realized that they were going to be short of the desired million people, so they intentionally antagonized Arab countries as much as possible, so Jews would have to flee them and seek refuge by populating Israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Million_Plan#Immigration_candidates
I just switched to FastMail a few weeks ago with my own domains to move away from Google, to prevent this vary possibility.
I realize how screwed I am if my email carrier arbitrarily decides to cut me off. Haven’t changed every account, but I started with my bank/financial accounts, and basically intend to change them over time; every time I log into an account for something, I plan to change it.
Edit: Of course, not an advert for FastMail. They are simply who I choose; I own the domains, so I can easily switch to another provider in the future if I so choose without cutting off my accounts. I know more privacy focused people tend to prefer Proton Mail or Tuta Mail. I’m fine with the choices fastmail makes in comparison to the other providers, for the specific features they are able to offer for giving up E2E encryption, a reasonably price family plan, and some more generous offering for value/price.
If someone requires the extra privacy, for sure go for another provider.
How well does spam filtering work for you?
That I really couldn’t say, only a few weeks in on emails that were not being used before, so not really getting “unsolicited spam”.
I am getting a lot of messages related changing my accounts over.
Their spam filter is configurable though:
They also have complex filters you can set up to either auto-label, or auto-sort non-spam into folders, from basic usage, up to complex regular expressions; depending on your level of dedication.
All I set up for now is an auto-filter any email with ‘unsubscribe’ somewhere in the body to be sent to an ‘subscriptions’ folder. I will get around to it more eventually.
I’m currently on the last 2 days of a free 30 day trial. I’m going to do annual pay for their family plan though, so I’m sticking with them.
If you own your domains… beware of who’s your registrar, and which registrar controls the domain you use as the one to manage them.
As a basic safety measure, with two domains, you may want to have one manage the other on a different registrar, and viceversa.
For sure good advice. I do trust the registrar I am on though. They are not US based, I have been with them for like 15 years, they are well known, automatically provide domain privacy without paying extra, and are not godaddy.
No matter who people choose, just remember to keep your domain locked when not changing registrars, and protect your registrar login with 2FA. Treat your registrar like you would treat your primary email or bank account.
I realize how screwed I am if my email carrier arbitrarily decides to cut me off.
Same as with your bank accounts, choose two providers.
I thought Whatsapp was the big family communication hotness outside the US, are they able to use that?
That’s besides the point, they can probably use any number of alternatives. The problem is the act itself, being suddenly booted off a platform is very disruptive and it takes time to regroup. Also, who’s to say that Meta won’t do that to them as well.
@PhlubbaDubba @tardigrada You still need email for pretty much most services. You need to log in? Create an account using your email and password. Need to work somewhere? A phone number is essential, but the employers will also use your email to message you if you cannot be reached on the phone (happened to me once) or when sending video call invites.
WhatsApp is ubiquitous when it comes to chatting, but for more elaborate communications, email still rules.
The fact that so many international companies have decided to side with a major aggressor during this terrible event in history is one of the most awful things I didn’t expect to witness. We all know that big business and money shapes world politics, but damn… This is straight up horrible. It could be any of us for any reason moving forward.
If business and money shape world politics… it makes one wonder why are there sanctions against Russia, doesn’t it?
IBM machines were used to tabulate the census used to track the Jewish people in Germany before the war and during the Holocaust, they tracked and counted everything happening in the concentration camps on IBM punch cards.
Look how far computer systems have come. Now Israel used an AI system and cell phone tracking to
try towipe out entire families.
A Microsoft spokesperson said that “we jerk off to people suffering” and after we asked for clarification they said that they “cum when they imagine babies dying”.
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