A BBC investigation reveals that Microsoft is permanently banning Palestinians in the U.S. and other countries who use Skype to call relatives in Gaza.

Reportedly, Microsoft has been banning and wiping the accounts of users who have leveraged Skype to contact relatives in Gaza. In some cases, email accounts over a decade old have been locked, destroying access to banking accounts, OneDrive storage, and beyond.

United States resident Salah Elsadi lost his account of over 15 years in the dragnet. “I’ve had this Hotmail for 15 years. They banned me for no reason, saying I have violated their terms — what terms? Tell me. I’ve filled out about 50 forms and called them many many times.” Eiad Hametto from Saudi Arabia echoed the report, “We are civilians with no political background who just wanted to check on our families. They’ve suspended my email account that I’ve had for nearly 20 years. It was connected to all my work. They killed my life online.”

Many of the users affected by the bans expressed that Microsoft may be falsely labelling them as Hamas

  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    Many Palestinian protests have people cosplaying Hamas and waving Hamas flags.

    Hanging out with people that like to dress up as a member of a group that wants to kill Jews makes someone a little antisemitic I think.

    Denying that there’s an antisemitism problem in the Palestinian movement doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. In fact that’s the sort of attitude that allows it to persist.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      5 months ago

      Denying that there’s an antisemitism problem in the Palestinian movement doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

      Uh… Did you expect them to not be antisemitic? I mean it’s not a good thing but what other outcome did you expect from 75 years of Apartheid and genocide?

      That aside, Hamas is the only viable resistance group in Palestine, other than maybe PIJ (which is more extremist). What do you expect them to do?

      Edit: Oh I misread and thought they were talking about the resistance movement in Palestine. Nevermind this guy is just making shit up.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Please point to where the anti Israeli movement hates All Arab and Hebrew speakers?

        Jews are not the only semites and yes everything I’ve seen in the US is directed at the country, not the people.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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          5 months ago

          Jews are not the only semites

          Okay this only really works as a gotcha. It doesn’t do anything to address the point being made. That aside,

          Please point to where the anti Israeli movement hates All Arab and Hebrew speakers?

          I misread their comment and thought they were talking about Palestinian resistance in Palestine, not the worldwide Anti-Zionist movement so nevermind anything I said up there.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            It is a gotcha, but it’s also important to understanding Israel’s victim propaganda. They’re not being truthful. They’re trying to paint any opposition as racist.