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International Criminal Court Dumps Microsoft Office
The ICC will adopt Open Desk software from German company Zendis to reduce reliance on US technology and strengthen digital sovereignty, impacting 1,800 workstations.
The International Criminal Court will switch its internal work environment from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, with contracts about to be signed, Handelsblatt reported.
The decision to switch software was driven by growing worries about reliance on US technology, aiming to make the ICC more independent amid US Government sanctions on Karim Khan and other officials.
Open Desk is developed by the state-owned German Centre for Digital Sovereignty, Zendis, and offers word processing, email, chat, and video conferences; Handelsblatt noted the switch is largely symbolic given the ICC's 1,800 workstations.
Other public institutions have already abandoned Microsoft products, including the German Army's seven-year contract with Zendis and Austria's switch to LibreOffice, while Osvaldo Zavala Giler, ICC IT manager, said the court must reduce dependencies even if costly in the short term.
Earlier this year the AP reported Microsoft had cancelled Karim Khan’s email account, a claim Microsoft denies, while Zendis is part of an EU-level organisation four EU countries founded Tuesday to build sovereign digital infrastructure.
The US government under President Trump uses digital technology as a means of printing. The International Criminal Court is now avoiding US sanctions - with software from Germany.
After the US imposed sanctions on judges and prosecutors, the International Criminal Court no longer wants to entrust e-mails to a US company. An alternative was found in Germany.