Europe's Growing Fear: How Trump Might Use US Tech Dominance Against It

This has jump-started EU efforts to develop alternatives to Amazon, Google, Microsoft

- Adam Satariano and Jeanna Smialek

LONDON — When US President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February against the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigating Israel for war crimes, Microsoft was suddenly thrust into the middle of a geopolitical fight.

For years, Microsoft had supplied the court — which is based in The Hague in the Netherlands and investigates and prosecutes human rights breaches, genocides and other crimes of international concern — with digital services such as e-mail.

Mr. Trump's order abruptly threw that relationship into disarray by barring US companies from providing services to the prosecutor, Mr. Karim Khan.

Soon after, Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, helped turn off Mr. Khan's ICC e-mail account, freezing him out of communications with colleagues just a few months after the court had issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel over his country's actions in the Gaza Strip.

Microsoft's swift compliance with Mr. Trump's order, reported earlier by The Associated Press, shocked Europe's policymakers.

It was a wake-up call for a problem far bigger than just one e-mail account, stoking fears that the Trump administration would leverage America's tech dominance to penalize opponents, even in allied countries like the Netherlands.

“The ICC showed this can happen,” said Mr. Bart Groothuis, a former head of cyber security for the Dutch Ministry of Defence who is now a member of the European Parliament. “It's not just fantasy.”

Mr. Groothuis once supported US tech firms but has done a “180-degree flip-flop,” he said. “We have to take steps as Europe to do more for our sovereignty.”

Some at the ICC are now using Proton, a Swiss company that provides encrypted e-mail services, three people with knowledge of the communications said.