- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- world@lemmy.world
- france@jlai.lu
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- world@lemmy.world
- france@jlai.lu
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/55550318
The extent of dependence on the USA in the digital sector is currently being experienced by a French judge. Nicolas Guillou, one of six judges and three prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC), was sanctioned by the USA in August. He described his current situation as a digital time travel back to the 1990s, before the internet age, in a recent interview.
The reason for the US sanctions are the arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. They were indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the context of the destruction of the Gaza Strip. The USA condemned this decision by the court, whereupon the US Treasury Department sanctioned six judges and three prosecutors.
Digitally excluded from almost everything In Guillou’s daily life, this means that he is excluded from digital life and much of what is considered standard today, he told the French newspaper Le Monde. All his accounts with US companies such as Amazon, Airbnb, or PayPal were immediately closed by the providers. Online bookings, such as through Expedia, are immediately canceled, even if they concern hotels in France. Participation in e-commerce is also practically no longer possible for him, as US companies always play a role in one way or another, and they are strictly forbidden to enter into any trade relationship with sanctioned individuals.
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The more they use their power, the more they lose it.
Now that they gave us an easy way to know the extent at which we need to change the system to make sure we can be independent of them, we can start working on doing so.
Cool
How
The easy part, to know what we need to do - just ask the
6 judgesjudge.The hard part, to actually do the thingy, it will require separately solving the different facets of the problems.
This will require getting onboard, government entities that are interested in their country’s sovereignty and national security and as many companies in the service sector as possible. For companies, you might want to be looking for small, privately owned ones, because internationally, publicly traded companies will only be joining to disrupt any operation.
Involving all the entities the operation will require making interfaces that lets them process the required things without any reliance upon foreign companies.For the example of financial transactions given in the article, the best way I consider is for the country’s national bank (whatever their name would be) to be the centre of all such transactions that would otherwise require stuff like VISA, PayPal etc.
For the inter-country transactions, they can then connect each of the national banks.
I consider this as ideal, because, this way:- they can enforce it upon any bank that wants to operate in the country, even if they don’t join at the start
- the whole system will be a part of the cost of currency operations of the country (which they would already have a budget for) and hence, you won’t have exorbitant levels of service charges
- this would be the path of least resistance for any well-functioning government
- why? It’s about national security. No country would want their financial system decimated by a single thought of a guy with a painted face.
More good things that will come out of it:
- Payment processors will no longer get the power to step over their bounds like they are doing right now, with hardly any consequences (see Steam accounts being blocked)
- Wartime economies will be much more stable
- doesn’t matter if your country is somehow a “good” one and doesn’t start a war. As long as US or Russia is doing sth, it reaches you
- Countries can now provide better tech employment opportunities that actually work, hence retaining more of their skilled workforce, which will make a difference in times of adversity (as long as the govt itself is not the cause of the adversity)
- for instance, you would require something at the level of Cloudflare for the company infrastructure. As a result, you will retain people with skill-sets that would be found at such a place
- Countries retain more of their capital (which would otherwise be going to those US companies as service fees), hence retaining their ratio to USD. This should offset any extra costs incurred from having to increase their currency budget and have more remaining.
How can anyone believe they’re the good guys when they are sanctioning individuals upholding human roghts?
This is absolutely fucked up. The people that received arrest warrants against should clearly be in prison, yet he is the man that ultimately suffers. We live in a backwards world.
Online bookings, such as through Expedia, are immediately canceled, even if they concern hotels in France.
I kinda wonder about that, hotel bookings usually require name and contact information only. So does Expedia and/or participating hotels blacklist all individuals with the name “Nicolas Guillou”, or is it based on email address / phone number (that could easily be changed)?
Tbh - you can just not use american services. It’s not hard ffs.
I read an article yesterday that explains that it’s still a bit hard :
- he can’t use his bank account in most foreign countries
- he can’t use most online marketplaces (non american ones may use american databases), plus they probably make you checkout through Visa
- he says he can’t have any credit card, this surprises me because I thought France had its own network “CB”, but I guess one card must interface with several systems (Visa, Mastercard, CB usually?)
(French and paywalled, sorry) https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/11/19/nicolas-guillou-juge-francais-de-la-cpi-sanctionne-par-les-etats-unis-face-aux-attaques-les-magistrats-de-la-cour-tiendront_6654016_3210.html?search-type=classic&ise_click_rank=6
Of course you can live with cash and relying on relatives when you really can find another solution. But this kind of intimidation on a judge is absolutely fucked up. (Right now it seems it is just a Monday in the USA, but in Europe we are not there yet)
Working for CPI he probably is living in the Netherlands, where there are no card-based alternatives to the usual emvco guys. Many shops accept only maestro cards (and vpay, sometimes)
I was on vacation in the Netherlands recently and the card acceptance at some stores that were not really catering to tourists was really confusing. I was at Albert Heijn twice where all my Swiss cards (including debit maestro) did not work at all, my Revolut card did not work either, only my US issued Capital One Visa card worked. Never had such issues anywhere else.
I really hope Wero and Twint will work out interoperability and finally start covering all of Europe.
Bit surprising tbh. Guess the machine must have been broken or something.
I live in NL and thus frequent AH. I can literally pay with any (virtual) debit and/or credit card incl Revolut. They accept it all.
AH is also the largest supermarket in NL, especially in the most touristic places of NL, it would be surprising if they wouldn’t facilitate internationals paying at their stores. They would lose out on millions per year.
In any case looking forward to Wero as well.
Does TWINT even work anywhere outside of Switzerland?
