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.
I work in a financial company and every year I have to take a training on money laundering and sanctioned individuals/companies/countries. They always use arms and drug traffickers on the examples, hope they update it explain why we can’t insure the car of the ICC judges.
My favorite was the company I worked for had yearly trainings including that I was not allowed to bribe foreign heads of state… Bitch I am trying to figure how to afford dinner?? Does King Charles accept change, I maybe able to find a dime…
Same. I had to disclose every single investment and bank account, payment apps, and loan for myself, my wife, and any dependents like children or aging parents. All to avoid even a possibility of something looking like a conflict of interest. In the meantime the fucking president of the country can hawk meme coins, and pardon actual convicted fraudsters. I asked about that on one of those zoom calls, but was ignored for some reason.
I wasn’t even going political… Just saying if I can’t afford lunch I can’t afford to bribe a leader of a country.
I didn’t have to disclose any information like that, just check a box saying I pinky promise I won’t slip vladamir putin a crisp one dollar bill…
There should be automatic retaliatory sanctions when taking actions impeding an ICC judge.
I agree, it’s fucking appalling
Would be great of the sanctioning hearing / decisions were made public and accountable.
Not having access to Alexa and other invasive products sounds liberating, not a punishment.
…which has shut her out from much of the international banking system.
This, not so much.
Not if you become accustomed to it and revolve your daily habits around it. But yeah, once she will get home assistant it will clearly be a liberating experience.
Squirreling a bit here, but I’ve been wanting to go that route, but don’t have quite enough free time.
At least from what I understand, the Ux is pretty decent.
@Quexotic anything involving self-hosting is a hassle though, and the advertising is not there, unlike anything that comes from big tech. But the results are highly rewarding.
I’m already hosting plex and veilid instances… What’s another. Lol
Right below this headline on the Irish Times website, there are links to share on Facebook, X, Whatsapp, all owned by US companies.
There’s a long way to go toward digital independance. There should be buttons to share via Mastodon, Email, … shown before those US walled gardens.
