In March 2026, French judge Nicolas Guillou of the International Criminal Court (ICC) sat before a French television camera and told his story. It was not a report from the battlefield or the courtroom—it was a story about a credit card that suddenly stopped working. About how a man who dared to sign an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister was suddenly cut off from Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, and Booking.com. "We are going back 30 years," said Guillou. "It's like a time machine that takes us back to the world before the digital era."
A few months earlier, a similar story was told by Francesca Albanese, an Italian lawyer and UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories. Her American credit card was also canceled, and her health insurance refused to reimburse her medical expenses. A hotel reservation under her name was automatically canceled. "This is financial censorship," Albanese said.
These stories are not isolated incidents. They are the quintessence of a mechanism that the United States has perfected over decades: making the entire world dependent on the dollar and then using that dependence to silence the inconvenient. This mechanism has two faces. The first is financial blockade—freezing accounts, blocking transactions, cutting off from the SWIFT system. The second is digital censorship—removing content, blocking accounts, shadow banning on platforms that are theoretically global marketplaces of ideas but in practice—American tools of control.
The Dollar's Web
The American financial system operates like a spider's web. Every transaction in dollars—and 90 percent of the world's currency exchanges pass through American banks—must be channeled through channels controlled by the USA. The SWIFT system, the interbank communication network, has become a precise tool of punishment in the hands of Washington. As the New York Times wrote, American decision-makers are increasingly using SWIFT to isolate the current "villain"—from Venezuela to Iran, from North Korea to Russia. The freezing of Russian reserves in 2022 was a signal to the whole world: no assets are safe if they undermine American interests.
Today, this mechanism is directed not only against pariah states but also against individuals who have never committed a crime—only done their jobs: documenting war crimes, calling for accountability, telling the truth about the suffering of Palestinians.
Judges from The Hague: How Justice Became a Crime
In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip. Washington's reaction was swift. On February 6, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order No. 14203, imposing sanctions on the ICC. Over the following months, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sanctioned at least eight ICC judges and three prosecutors, including Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan. The sanctions include a ban on entry to the USA and a blockade of any real estate or other interests in American territory.
In June 2025, sanctions were imposed on four more judges—including two who participated in the proceedings leading to the arrest warrant for Netanyahu and two involved in the investigation of war crimes by American forces in Afghanistan. Rubio stated that these individuals "actively engaged in illegal and unfounded ICC actions aimed at America and its close ally Israel." The ICC, in response, called this "an attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution."
In December 2025, sanctions were imposed on two more judges—Goch Lordkipanidze from Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin from Mongolia—after they rejected Israel's attempt to end the investigation into war crimes in Gaza.
The most telling testimony to the effectiveness of this mechanism is the story of Judge Guillou: he cannot buy a ticket online, order from Amazon, or book accommodations through Airbnb, Booking.com, or Expedia. President Emmanuel Macron reportedly wrote seven letters to the Trump administration requesting the lifting of sanctions against the French judge. To no avail. Guillou warned of broader consequences: "If prosecutors are afraid to prosecute, if lawyers are afraid to defend, if judges are afraid to judge, if parliamentarians are afraid to pass laws, and ministers are afraid to enforce them—there is no longer democracy."
This "democracy" is now dying, strangled by its own tools of control.
Francesca Albanese: From the UN to the Terrorist List
Francesca Albanese, an Italian lawyer serving since 2022 as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, has been documenting Israel's crimes for years. Her reports—Anatomy of Genocide and From the Economy of Occupation to the Economy of Genocide—detail the mechanisms of Israeli violence against Palestinians.
In July 2025, just six days after publishing the second of these reports, in which she accused major corporations of complicity in the Israeli offensive, Albanese was sanctioned by the US administration. The official reason was the accusation of "indiscriminate anti-Semitism, expressing support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West." The real reason was different. As revealed by a Reuters investigation, Albanese sent official warning letters to 48 American companies, universities, and financial institutions—including Alphabet, Amazon, Caterpillar, Chevron, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, and Palantir—warning them against complicity in the genocide in Gaza. At least two of these companies turned to the White House for help. As quoted by a former official: "Anti-Israeli sentiments in the UN corridors may be acceptable to Washington, but threatening the interests of the energy, technology, and innovation sectors required a decisive response."
The consequences for Albanese were devastating. She was placed on the US Treasury Department's Specially Designated Nationals list—the same one that includes suspected terrorists, drug traffickers, and arms smugglers. Her bank account was closed, credit cards canceled, and diplomatic visa revoked. She cannot enter the USA to present her annual report to the UN General Assembly. Private health insurance refuses to reimburse her expenses. Hotel reservations under her name are automatically canceled.
"These sanctions were imposed on me as if I were a criminal, a terrorist," says Albanese. "It is unfair and persecuted. I am being punished for my work on human rights."
In February 2026, Albanese's family—her husband and minor daughter—filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Washington, arguing that the sanctions violate the First Amendment to the US Constitution, as Albanese's actions as a UN rapporteur are protected by freedom of speech. The case could have far-reaching consequences: if the court rules the sanctions unconstitutional, it could limit the ability of future administrations to use this tool against international experts.
For now, however, Albanese lives in Tunisia, dependent on cash from friends and family. The UN has increased protection for her and her loved ones after she began receiving threats.
Other Victims: Palestinian Organizations and Digital Censorship
Albanese and the ICC judges are not the only targets. In September 2025, the US administration imposed sanctions on two leading Palestinian human rights organizations: Al-Haq (founded in 1979) and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). The official reason: cooperation with the ICC in prosecuting war criminals. Al-Haq director Shawan Jabarin commented bluntly: "The Americans said it themselves. They are imposing sanctions on us because we cooperate with the ICC to prosecute Israeli war criminals. They are not ashamed to say this publicly." The effects were immediate: banks closed the organizations' accounts, foreign partners suspended transfers for fear of secondary sanctions. Forty-five families of Al-Haq employees were left without salaries. PCHR director Raji Sourani called it "unprecedented" and "completely illegal."
Parallel to the financial sanctions, digital censorship is underway. A 2023 Human Rights Watch investigation documented 1,050 cases of removal or restriction of content on Meta platforms—of which 1,049 concerned peaceful posts supporting Palestine; one case concerned content supporting Israel. In 2025, leaks revealed that Meta complied with 94 percent of the Israeli government's requests to remove content, leading to the immediate removal of over 90,000 posts and the suppression of tens of millions of others worldwide. Israeli requests were processed by AI systems, bypassing the human review required for other countries. In October 2025, the organization Sada Social documented over 1,039 digital violations in September alone, including account suspensions, reach restrictions, and content removal.
The systematic suppression of pro-Palestinian voices on American social media platforms is a logical complement to financial sanctions. In both cases, the goal is the same: cutting off access to the tools necessary to function in the modern world—from money to a voice in public debate.
Epilogue: The Kingdom of Fear
The United States built a system after World War II in which the dollar is the world's reserve currency and American technology platforms are the global agora. For decades, the world accepted this hegemony, believing it was a guarantee of stability and freedom. Today, only the naive fail to see that it was an illusion. The same infrastructure that enabled global trade and the exchange of ideas has become a tool to silence those who dare to speak the truth about America's allies.
Judge Guillou cannot buy a train ticket. Francesca Albanese cannot pay for treatment. Palestinian human rights organizations cannot pay salaries to their employees. Millions of posts disappear from Facebook and Instagram in seconds. And all this—because someone dared to charge Netanyahu, call things by their name, document a crime.
This is not the rule of law. This is systemic revenge. This is imperialism in its purest form, which no longer needs tanks and bombs—a few clicks in the banking system, a few lines of algorithm code, a few executive orders signed in the White House are enough.
In March 2026, Secretary of State Rubio announced sanctions against two more ICC judges, stating that the USA "will not tolerate abuses of power by the ICC that undermine the sovereignty of the United States and Israel." He added that America will continue to respond with "significant and tangible consequences" to the tribunal's "overreach."
"Significant and tangible consequences"—these are the words that should be etched in the memory of everyone who believes that justice and international law have any meaning. Significant and tangible consequences—for daring to judge criminals whom the USA supports.
History teaches that systems built on fear eventually collapse. The growing wave of de-dollarization—from China to Russia, from Brazil to Iran—is a sign that the world is beginning to seek alternatives. Alternative social platforms offer spaces free from shadow banning. The question is whether they will arrive quickly enough to save those who are in the crosshairs today.
For now, in this kingdom of fear, the only currency that still has value is courage. And that, as we can see, America is still trying to freeze.