Protests grow inside Microsoft over Gaza war links

from al Mayadeen English

Internal unrest is mounting at Microsoft as employees protest the company’s reported involvement in the Israeli genocide in Gaza, The Guardian reported on Friday.

For the second time in a month, staff interrupted a high-profile event—this time during Microsoft’s 50th anniversary celebration on April 4—accusing the company of complicity in what they described as war crimes in Gaza.

During the celebration, AI executive Mustafa Suleyman was interrupted by employees Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal, both of whom were fired days later. The incident follows a March 20 protest at Seattle’s Great Hall, where Microsoft President Brad Smith and former CEO Steve Ballmer were shouted down by a current and a former employee...

read more here

Hamas hails Microsoft employee for exposing company’s IA support for Gaza genocide

from PressTV

The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has expressed admiration for a Microsoft employee’s daring interruption during the tech giant’s 50th-anniversary celebration, where she called out the company’s AI support for the Israeli military's genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.

“Hamas highly commends the heroic stance of engineer Ibtihal Aboussad, who courageously and at great sacrifice exposed the complicity of major global technology companies with the Zionist regime’s killing machine in an exceptional manner,” the group said in a statement on Saturday.

Various reports have indicated that tech companies, including Microsoft, have provided the Israeli occupation forces with artificial intelligence tools employed in the ongoing massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, where close to 50,700 Palestinians have been killed.

It appealed to all employees and personnel of companies with a relationship with the Israeli military to follow suit and adopt a position similar to that of Aboussad.

“We also demand the UN, the international community, and rights groups to document all forms of technological complicity with the occupying Israeli regime’s crimes, prosecute these companies before international courts, and impose immediate sanctions on them for violating laws and human ethics,” Hamas stated...

read more here

Microsoft's Israel ties during Gaza massacres exposed in leaked files

(Long time ago IBM helped the Nazis run the concentration camps now Microsoft helps Israel manage it's genocide. Yeah, go ahead. Run your country like a business. What could be better?)

from Daily Sabah

Leaked internal documents indicate that Microsoft has become a leading supplier of cloud services and artificial intelligence (AI) to the Israeli military, with its involvement expanding significantly following the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on Oct. 7, 2023.

According to documents obtained by Drop Site News, Israel has emerged as one of Microsoft's top global partners, with engineering support and consultancy costs totaling about $10 million since the Gaza attacks began.

Microsoft has yet to publicly confirm or deny the report, and it has not responded to Anadolu Agency's (AA) request for comment.

With additional support projects worth $30 million under consideration in 2024, the total size of Israel's contract with the tech company, which is expected to be much larger, could not be determined from the documents.

The Israeli military's use of Microsoft services has seen unprecedented growth, with cloud storage usage jumping over 155% between June 2023 and April 2024, peaking just before the Rafah offensive in May 2024.

Microsoft's most utilized services include translation tools and Azure OpenAI, accounting for nearly 75% of total military usage...

read more here

How American tech giants are aiding Israel’s AI-powered genocide in Gaza

from PressTV

Microsoft, a multinational tech giant headquartered in Washington, fired two employees last week after they organized a vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in the year-long Israeli-American genocidal war on Gaza.

Abdo Muhammad and Hossam Nasr, the two dismissed Microsoft employees of Egyptian descent, were both actively involved in an employee coalition called “No Azure for Apartheid.”

This group has been vocal for months in opposing Microsoft’s sale of its cloud-computing technology to the Israeli regime, citing concerns over gross human rights violations and the company’s support of Israel’s genocidal practices and war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.

Microsoft, a global leader in cloud services, computer software, and hardware, confirmed the termination of several employees “in accordance with its internal policies” without providing specific details regarding the dismissals.

“So I guess the cat is out of the bag. I was fired from Microsoft on Thursday, hours after a vigil we organized to honor and remember the lives of Palestinians killed by American-funded and Microsoft-empowered Israeli genocide,” Nasr wrote in a thread of posts on X, formerly Twitter.

Nasr, however, emphasized that his dismissal, as well as the unfair treatment of other Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim employees at Microsoft, is not an isolated incident...

read more here

Microsoft Encourages Employee Donations to Illegal West Bank Settlements, While Barring UNRWA

from Murtaza Hussain

Microsoft includes a number organizations based in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including at least one that fundraises to support the Israeli military, in its employee charitable giving platform. Yet the company has delisted the UN agency providing relief in Gaza, according to Microsoft employees petitioning the company internally to change its policy. The listing of the charities on the expansive platform means Microsoft will automatically match contributions.

Last week, a group of Microsoft employees began circulating a petition calling on the company to cease matching contributions to three organizations, the Ma'aleh Adumim Foundation, Ein Prat Academy for Leadership, and the Megilot Dead Sea Rescue Team, which they say "are in direct violation of international law," citing the Geneva Conventions...

read more here