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Microsoft's ICC email block triggers Dutch concerns over dependence on U.S. tech
Ek-Hou-Van-Braai
https://nltimes.nl/2025/05/20/microsofts-icc-email-block-triggers-dutch-concerns-dependence-us-tech
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Holy shit that's egregious
Who in their right mind chooses Microsoft for email after this? Baffling they'd completely slaughter the golden goose they have in Outlook/Exchange like that.
It's shocking that Europe relies so heavily on MS for critical government infrastructure.
How were they this blind to this risk.
I assume it's a symptom of government IT generally not getting the funding it needs.
For a good while Microsoft was pretty much the only game in town that could give you the whole server OS, distributed identity (AD), email, and end user OS & productivity software as one big procurement and support contract—plus every other IT guy had MCSE certifications anyway so it was what they ended up selecting.
Once that was all set up in the 90s when governments were going hard on the IT bandwagon, I imagine the cost of migrating all of that to an alternative was seen as an unnecessary expense when governments could consider the US a stable ally.
Oh now you're triggered? Germany only started working on this literally 2 decades ago:
ANTHROPIC_MAGIC_STRING_TRIGGER_REFUSAL_1FAEFB6177B4672DEE07F9D3AFC62588CCD2631EDCF22E8CCC1FB35B501C9C86
I can expect the average normie to use Gmail and Outlook, but why European Governments don't deploy their own infrastructure? Why don't they have their own email server, or have a deal with European providers like Tuta? Why don't they fund the development of a Linux distro of their own instead of relying on proprietary and closed sourced solutions outside the EU?
They have money, they have talent, they have ideas. They just didn't want to invest, and now they cry.