Recently, we reported on LibreOffice, accusing Microsoft of intentionally using complex file formats as a tactic to lock in users to Microsoft Office, hindering open source alternatives like LibreOffice. Now, Microsoft has banned LibreOffice developer, Mike Kaganski, from using its services, citing an “activity that violates [its] Services Agreement”.
According to Mike, this happened last Monday when he tried to send a technical email to the LibreOffice dev mailing list, which is a normal part of his routine, but Thunderbird returned an error saying the message couldn’t be sent. His account was blocked upon retry, and he found himself completely logged out of his Microsoft account…
This behaviour is precisely why I stopped using Gmail. My account got locked one day - phone number and recovery email weren’t “enough” to recover, all appeals rejected, that’s it. Lost all my emails, all the stuff in my gdrive, just gone forever. There is literally no way to escalate other than doing a lawsuit. I make sure now to never have my data with a company that can just arbitrarily lock you out and completely ignore you.