The International Criminal Court is ditching Microsoft software for an open source alternative

• The ICC is replacing Microsoft Office software with German firm openDesk
• This comes amid fears of US retaliation from the Trump administration
• EU and ICC fear US tech may be hit with 'kill switch' via US foreign policy

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is looking to replace its internal work environments to move away from US-made software in fear of retaliation from the US administration.

The Microsoft software currently used in the Hague-based ICC is likely to be replaced with Open Desk, a German collaboration software alternative which is open source, meaning developers have chosen to release the source code - opening it up to scrutiny and often meaning that bugs and vulnerabilities are picked up quickly by the community.

The move protects the ICC from further targeted sanctions by the US government for ‘transgressions against the United States and Israel’ - in which judges and prosecutors for the court have been threatened with travel bans and asset freezes.

Kill switch

Early in 2025, Chief Prosecutor for the ICC Kamrin Khan, after being hit with sanctions from the Trump administration, was disconnected from his email service.

This action was thought to be from Microsoft supporting US sanctions - although the firm denied this, with a spokesperson stating; “at no point did Microsoft cease or suspend its services to the ICC.”

This sparked fears that US tech firms could flip a ‘kill switch’ and cut digital services on orders of Trump - outlining the need to become less dependent on US technology, with firms like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon dominating Europe’s digital services and cloud markets.

A Microsoft spokesperson told TechRadar Pro: "We value our relationship with the ICC as a customer and are convinced that nothing impedes our ability to continue providing services to the ICC in the future." 

Open Desk is created for public administrations by the German Centre for Digital Sovereignty of the Public Administration (Zendis) - a publicly owned company created with the aim of building sovereign digital infrastructure for EU states.

Efforts have been made to reduce EU reliance on the US not just for digital services, but for hyperscalers too - as Trump’s increasingly hostile and unpredictable foreign policy leaves allies exposed and looking to develop their own infrastructure.

Via Handelsblatt (translated online)

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