cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/38271574
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv.
German newspaper Handelsblatt first reported on the plans. The switch comes amid rising concerns about public bodies being reliant on US tech companies to run their services, which have stepped up sharply since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration.
For the ICC, such concerns are not abstract: Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the court and slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
In my opinion, any Public Administration depending on software without control over the source (paying contractor is another debate) is a bad idea, you don’t have to wait for a company to go rogue (for its client) to realize it.
What transparency can you get if you don’t know your software ? Trusting publisher without permanent audit is worthless, also, with this amount of dependency, corruption could arise just to keep it.
If in the future they consider it good timing, this should be considered a defeat.