Latest news with #NoAzureforApartheid
The National
7 days ago
- Business
- The National
Gaza accusations at centre of Microsoft shareholder resolution
A shareholder resolution related to the allegations levelled at Microsoft concerning the use of its technology in Gaza will be voted on at the company's annual meeting. The resolution seeks to push Microsoft to evaluate its effectiveness in promoting "human rights due diligence processes" related to artificial intelligence. "Shareholders request the board of directors publish a report, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, assessing the effectiveness of Microsoft's human rights due diligence processes in preventing, identifying and addressing customer misuse of Microsoft artificial intelligence and cloud products or services that violates human rights or international humanitarian law," reads the resolution. Since April, the software company has come under criticism from various groups, chief among them No Azure for Apartheid, which consists of current and former Microsoft employees who have criticised the company's contracts with the Israeli military. The group has claimed that Microsoft's AI and cloud products have been used to target Palestinians in the war in Gaza. After weeks of condemnation from No Azure for Apartheid, Microsoft announced in May that an internal review had found "no evidence" its products have been used to harm people in Gaza. There were caveats in the review, however, particularly an acknowledgement that because of the nature of how software and AI tools are used by various entities, Microsoft's investigation might have been limited. The resolution recently submitted for the company based in Redmond, Washington, was filed by about 60 shareholders, "collectively representing more than $80 million in Microsoft shares", said corporation watchdog Eko, which provided a copy of the resolution to The National. Israel's campaign in the enclave – which followed the 2023 attacks by Hamas-led fighters on Israel that resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people and the capture of 240 hostages – has killed nearly 58,400 people and injured more than 139,000. Microsoft is not alone in coming under scrutiny for contracts with Israel. Palantir, Lockheed Martin, Booz Allen Hamilton, Google and others have faced flak. The internal review of Microsoft, despite making the company stand out among others to have been condemned for their ties to Israel, failed to appease those who insist the company's AI tools and cloud computing offerings such as Azure have been misused in Gaza. The lead filer of the resolution, set to face a vote at Microsoft's annual shareholder meeting in December, is the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, an international congregation of Catholic women. "Over the years, we have had constructive discussions with Microsoft," read a statement from the group. "However, in this case, we are disappointed that Microsoft's recent statements responding to allegations of complicity in war crimes lack both specificity and detail." Rewan Haddad, a campaign director at Eko, which describes itself as being "committed to curbing the growing power of corporations", said "time will tell if Microsoft's executives heed the call of their investors and people around the world, or continue to profit from and fuel atrocities". Microsoft has not yet responded to The National's requests for comment on the shareholder resolution. Its looks set to face an uphill battle in terms of being approved by Microsoft's shareholders and because resolutions for publicly traded companies in the US are non-binding, enforcing them is difficult. Meanwhile, demonstrators calling attention to the plight of Gazans have continued to interrupt Microsoft events throughout the US.
Hans India
24-05-2025
- Business
- Hans India
Microsoft Employee Defies Email Restrictions to Voice Support for Palestinians
In a bold act of protest, a Microsoft employee has managed to bypass the company's internal filters that block terms like 'Palestine,' 'Gaza,' and 'Genocide' incorporate emails. The employee, Nisreen Jaradat, a senior tech support engineer, sent a powerful message to thousands of staff members on May 23rdwith the subject line: 'You can't get rid of us.' Her message, which was obtained by a famous publication, voiced her frustration with the company's stance on the ongoing conflict. 'As a Palestinian worker, I am fed up with the way our people have been treated by this company,' Jaradat wrote. 'I am sending this email as a message to Microsoft leaders: the cost of trying to silence all voices that dare to humanize Palestinians is far higher than simply listening to the concerns of your employees.' Although it remains unclear how Jaradat circumvented the internal restrictions, her email called on colleagues to support a petition by No Azure for Apartheid(NOAA), a group pushing Microsoft to end its partnerships with the Israeli government. NOAA has been behind multiple protest actions in recent weeks, including disruptions at the company's annual developer event, MicrosoftBuild. Jaradat encouraged coworkers to not only sign the petition but also to get involved in NOAA's growing internal movement. She described her email as a direct message to Microsoft leadership, urging them to confront uncomfortable truths rather than suppress employee voices. When asked about the incident, Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw referred that famous publication to a previously released statement addressing the policy. 'Mass emailing colleagues about any topic not related to work is not appropriate,' the company stated, adding that it has implemented measures to limit such messages to those who have opted in. Hossam Nasr, an organizer with NOAA, criticized the company's response. 'Microsoft keeps telling its workers to go through the appropriate channels, and yet time and time again, those who speak up in 'appropriate channels' from viva engage posts to HR tickets are silenced or ignored,' Nasr said. 'What Microsoft is really telling us is: make it convenient for us to ignore you. Nisreen's email summarises it: they cannot get rid of us. We will continue protesting in all ways, big and small, until our demands are met.' This week's escalation follows a string of employee-led demonstrations that began on May 19th when a Microsoft worker, Joe Lopez, interrupted the Build conference's key note and later emailed thousands of colleagues. Lopez was terminated that same day. Protests continued through the week, including interruptions during AI-related sessions and pickets outside the venue. The unrest comes shortly after Microsoft publicly acknowledged its contracts with the Israeli government but maintained that internal and external reviews found 'no evidence' that its tools were used to 'target or harm people' in Gaza. The employee actions have intensified internal tensions and raised questions about how far corporations should go in regulating speech related to global humanitarian issues. Read the full email here Yesterday, Microsoft chose to utterly and completely discriminate against an entire nation, an entire people, and an entire community by blocking all employees from sending any outbound email containing the words 'Palestine', 'Gaza', 'genocide', or 'apartheid'. Microsoft leaders justified this blatant censorship by saying it was to prevent you from receiving emails like the email that you are reading right now. Even though Microsoft SLT are aware that this 'short term solution' is easily by passable, as this email clearly proves, Microsoft still doubled down, insisted on not rolling back the policy, and decided to continue targeting and repressing their Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and allied workers. They refused to revoke this censorship tactic, despite its potential illegality, dozens of employees expressing how racist of a decision it was, and even leaders admitting they see how it can be perceived as discriminatory and targeted. This further proves how little Microsoft values Palestinian lives and Palestinian suffering. As a Palestinian worker, I am fed up with the way our people have been treated by this company. I am sending this email as a message to Microsoft leaders: the cost of trying to silence all voices that dare to humanize Palestinians is far higher than simply listening to the concerns of your employees. Had this useless and discriminatory policy been revoked, as I tried to request numerous times through so-called 'proper channels'[1][2], I would not be sending you all this email. Despite claiming to have 'heard concerns from our employees and the public regarding Microsoft technologies used by the Israeli military to target civilians or cause harm in the conflict in Gaza' in a statement riddled with lies, admissions, and absurd justifications, Microsoft has shown that they are utterly uninterested in hearing what we have to say. Microsoft claims that they 'provide many avenues for all voices to be heard'. However, whenever we try to discuss anything substantial about divesting from genocidein the 'approved channels', workers are retaliated against, doxxed, or silenced. Microsoft has deleted relevant employee questions in AMAs with executives and shut down Viva Engage posts in dedicated channels for asking SLT questions. Managers have warned outspoken directs to stay quiet and have even openly retaliated against them. When my community tries to flag issues and concerns to HR/GER/WIT, we have been met with racist outcomes with double standards. Throughout all this, Microsoft has sent a clear message to their employees: There are no proper channels at Microsoft to express your concerns, disagreements, or even questions about how Microsoft is using your labor to kill Palestinian babies. Over this past week, Microsoft has shown their true face, brutalizing, detaining, firing, pepper spraying, threatening and insulting workers and former workers protesting at Microsoft Build. This email censorship is simply the latest example in a long list of recent extreme and outrageous escalations by Microsoft against my community. Enough is enough. It has become clear that Microsoft will not listen to us out of the goodness of their hearts. Microsoft will not change their stance just because it is the moral or even legal thing to do. Microsoft will only divest from genocide once it becomes more expensive for them to kill Palestinians than not. Right now, Microsoft makes a lot of money from genocide-profiteering, so we must make support for genocide even more expensive. The situation in Palestine is more urgent by the minute. More and more Palestinians are being killed of starvation under the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)'s bombing campaign, invasion, and siege that has martyred an estimated 400,000Palestinians. The IOF have kidnapped over 16,000 Palestinians and placed them in torture and rape camps. 1.93 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, and over 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the West Bank. While a hostile work environment is difficult, it cannot compare to the horrors taking place in Palestine - horrors that we as Microsoft employees are complicit in. These futile attempts to silence our community, while painful at times, are evidence that the pressure we are applying is working. This is not the time for baby steps or gradual progress. Starving infants cannot wait any longer. We, as a company of over 200,000 employees, are providing the technological backbone for Israel's genocidal war machine in Palestinian. We, as employees of this company, have a responsibility to end our employer's complicity in this AI-assisted genocide! Now is the time to escalate against Microsoft and end this Microsoft-powered genocide! I am calling on every employee of conscience to: Sign No Azure for Apartheid's petition calling for a termination of all Microsoft contracts with the Israeli military and government: Strongly consider whether you want to stay in the company and fight for change from within, or if you want to leave and stop contributing labor to genocide. If you choose to leave Microsoft to no longer be complicit in genocide, do not go quietly. The No Azure for Apartheid campaign is ready to help you make an impact on your way out for Palestine, and we will also do our best to provide you support before leaving. Reach out to us expressing your interest to leave here. If you choose to stay, continue to fight from the inside to end Microsoft's, and your own, Complicity in war crimes, join the No Azure for Apartheid campaign. If you are worried about being public with your affiliation, rest assured that as a worker-led grassroots movement, we have members with all levels of anonymity and risk level. Some of our members are publicly visible and will even publicly confront our war-criminal executives, such as Satya Nadella, Mustafa Suleyman, and Jay Parikh at major Microsoft events like the 50th Anniversary celebration and Microsoft Build. Other members choose to stay completely anonymous and still contribute to the critical work of the campaign. There is room for everyone: While I do understand that as Microsoft employees, we cannot fully boycott Microsoft, most of us can focus on the priority targets set by the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement, which recently set Microsoft as a priority target. The main target of the boycott is Microsoft Gaming, especially X-Box. We can also encourage our friends and family to boycott Microsoft where possible. To Microsoft Senior Leadership team specifically: You cannot silence Palestine. You cannot silence Gaza. You cannot hide your involvement in genocide and apartheid. Free Palestine Nisreen Jaradat
The Hindu
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Microsoft fires employee who interrupted event to protest AI tech for Israeli military
Microsoft has fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella to protest the company's work supplying the Israeli military with technology used for the war in Gaza. Software engineer Joe Lopez could be heard shouting at Nadella in the opening minutes Monday of the tech giant's annual Build developer conference in Seattle before getting escorted out of the room. Lopez later sent a mass email to colleagues disputing the company's claims about how its Azure cloud computing platform is used in Gaza. Lopez's outburst was the first of several pro-Palestinian disruptions at the event that drew thousands of software developers to the Seattle Convention Center. At least three talks by executives were disrupted, the company even briefly cut the audio of one livestreamed event. Protesters also gathered outside the venue. Microsoft has previously fired employees who protested company events over its work in Israel, including at its 50th anniversary party in April. Microsoft acknowledged last week that it provided AI services to the Israeli military for the war in Gaza but said it had found no evidence to date that its Azure platform and AI technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. The advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid, led by employees and ex-employees, says Lopez received a termination letter after his Monday protest but couldn't open it. The group also says the company has blocked internal emails that mention words including 'Palestine' and 'Gaza.' Microsoft hasn't returned emailed requests for comment about its response to this week's protests. The four-day conference ends Thursday.
CNBC
22-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Microsoft employees say emails with 'Gaza,' 'Palestine,' or 'genocide' won't send
Microsoft employees are concerned that the company has been blocking Outlook emails containing the words "Palestine," "Gaza," "genocide," "apartheid" and "IOF off Azure," even if they're including those terms in an HR complaint, according to screenshots, recordings and documents viewed by CNBC. Employees said they started noticing the change Wednesday just before noon PST, batch-testing emails with the terms in question and emails without them. Only the ones without such terms appeared in their outboxes, suggesting those containing the terms weren't received, according to materials viewed by CNBC and three sources familiar with the matter. The people asked not to be named in order to speak freely. One employee with the word "apartheid" in their email signature, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said they sent a typical work-related email around 11:30 a.m. PST on Wednesday successfully. The person said that just before noon on the same day, their emails wouldn't go through — ostensibly due to their email signature. On internal message boards, messages seen by CNBC showed employees asking why their emails with the word "Israel" may go through but not the word "Palestine," as well as "Gaza" and other terms. Modifications like "P4lestine" did go through, according to their tests. One employee asked on an internal message board, "Is the company abandoning the inclusivity initiative or is this only targeting Palestinians and their allies?" The Verge was first to report on the potential email block. In a message seen by CNBC, Frank Shaw, Microsoft's chief communications officer, responded to an employee post, writing: "To clarify, emails are not being blocked or censored, unless they are being sent to large numbers of random distribution groups. There can be a small delay and the team is working to make that as short as possible." "Over the past couple of days, a number of emails have been sent to tens of thousands of employees across the company and we have taken measures to try and reduce those emails to those that have not opted in," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. But employees told CNBC that even when they attempted to send relatively mundane, solely work-related emails to small groups of colleagues, the emails still didn't go through if they contained those terms. Another employee who spoke on condition of anonymity said that when they attempted to send a report to HR containing one of the terms in question, they did not receive the auto-response typically confirming receipt until more than 24 hours later. The message also didn't show up in the online HR portal until more than 24 hours later. Some emails were delivered after being delayed by seven hours or more, according to the group No Azure for Apartheid. The group suggested manual reviews of such emails were taking place before they were delivered. Microsoft has seen a growing number of protests at recent events over the Israeli military's use of the company's AI products. Protesters have also sent emails to the company's executives outlining their concerns. At Microsoft's Build developer conference in Seattle this week, protesters interrupted executives during keynote speeches and sessions. On Tuesday, protesters interrupted the Microsoft Build session on best AI security practices, singling out Sarah Bird, Microsoft's head of responsible AI, who was co-hosting the session with Microsoft AI security chief Neta Haiby. Haiby was formerly a member of the Israel Defense Forces, according to a Tumblr page viewed by CNBC. "Sarah Bird, you are whitewashing the crimes of Microsoft in Palestine," Hossam Nasr, an organizer with the group No Azure for Apartheid, said. Nasr was one of the Microsoft employees terminated last year after planning a vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza. Earlier on Tuesday during another Microsoft Build session, an unnamed Palestinian tech worker disrupted a speech by Jay Parikh, Microsoft's head of CoreAI. "Jay, you are complicit in the genocide in Gaza," the tech worker, who did not wish to share their name for fear of retaliation, said. "My people are suffering because of you. How dare you. How dare you talk about AI when my people are suffering. Cut ties with Israel." The worker then called to "free Palestine" and said, "No Azure for apartheid," a nod to the group and its petition. On Monday, Microsoft software engineer Joe Lopez interrupted CEO Satya Nadella's keynote speech onstage, saying, "Satya, how about you show them how Microsoft is killing Palestinians? How about you show them how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?" Lopez was later fired, according to a document viewed by CNBC that stated the reason as, "misconduct resulting in the violation of both company policy and our expectations of a respectful workplace." The document said Lopez would be ineligible to return to Microsoft as an employee, contractor, or in any other capacity, including an employee of a Microsoft partner, customer or other third party. At Microsoft's 50th anniversary event last month, two Microsoft software engineers publicly protested the use of the company's AI by the Israeli military during executive presentations. The roles of both employees, Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal, were terminated soon after, according to documents viewed by CNBC.
22-05-2025
- Business
Microsoft fires employee who interrupted CEO's speech to protest AI tech for Israeli military
SEATTLE -- Microsoft has fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella to protest the company's work supplying the Israeli military with technology used for the war in Gaza. Software engineer Joe Lopez could be heard shouting at Nadella in the opening minutes Monday of the tech giant's annual Build developer conference in Seattle before getting escorted out of the room. Lopez later sent a mass email to colleagues disputing the company's claims about how its Azure cloud computing platform is used in Gaza. Lopez's outburst was the first of several pro-Palestinian disruptions at the event that drew thousands of software developers to the Seattle Convention Center. At least three talks by executives were disrupted, the company even briefly cut the audio of one livestreamed event. Protesters also gathered outside the venue. Microsoft has previously fired employees who protested company events over its work in Israel, including at its 50th anniversary party in April. Microsoft acknowledged last week that it provided AI services to the Israeli military for the war in Gaza but said it had found no evidence to date that its Azure platform and AI technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. The advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid, led by employees and ex-employees, says Lopez received a termination letter after his Monday protest but couldn't open it. The group also says the company has blocked internal emails that mention words including 'Palestine' and 'Gaza.' Microsoft hasn't returned emailed requests for comment about its response to this week's protests. The four-day conference ends Thursday.
