MESSAGE
| DATE | 2025-08-28 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Microsoft Employees revolt over Gaza
|
apnews.com
Microsoft employee protests lead to 18 arrests as company reviews its
work with Israel's military | AP News
Matt O'Brien, Michael Biesecker
4–5 minutes
Police officers arrested 18 people at worker-led protests at Microsoft
headquarters Wednesday as the tech company promises an “urgent” review
of the Israeli military’s use of its technology during the ongoing war
in Gaza.
Two consecutive days of protest at the Microsoft campus in Redmond,
Washington called for the tech giant to immediately cut its business
ties with Israel.
But unlike Tuesday, when about 35 protesters occupying a plaza between
office buildings left after Microsoft asked them to leave, the
protesters on Wednesday “resisted and became aggressive” after the
company told police they were trespassing, according to the Redmond
Police Department.
The protesters also splattered red paint resembling the color of blood
over a landmark sign that bears the company logo and spells Microsoft in
big gray letters.
“We said, ‘Please leave or you will be arrested,’ and they chose not to
leave so they were detained,” said police spokesperson Jill Green.
Microsoft late last week said it was tapping a law firm to investigate
allegations reported by British newspaper The Guardian that the Israeli
Defense Forces used Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to store
phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians
in Gaza and the West Bank.
“Microsoft’s standard terms of service prohibit this type of usage,” the
company said in a statement posted Friday, adding that the report raises
“precise allegations that merit a full and urgent review.”
In February, The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details
about the tech giant’s close partnership with the Israeli Ministry of
Defense, with military use of commercial artificial intelligence
products skyrocketing by nearly 200 times after the deadly Oct. 7, 2023,
Hamas attack. The AP reported that the Israeli military uses Azure to
transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass
surveillance, which can then be cross-checked with Israel’s in-house
AI-enabled targeting systems.
Following The AP’s report, Microsoft acknowledged the military
applications but said a review it commissioned found no evidence that
its Azure platform and artificial intelligence technologies were used to
target or harm people in Gaza. Microsoft did not share a copy of that
review or say who conducted it.
Microsoft said it will share the latest review’s findings after it’s
completed by law firm Covington & Burling.
The promise of a second review was insufficient for the employee-led No
Azure for Apartheid group, which for months has protested Microsoft’s
supplying the Israeli military with technology used for its war against
Hamas in Gaza. The group said Wednesday the technology is “being used to
surveil, starve and kill Palestinians.”
Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya
Nadella to protest the contracts, and in April, fired two others who
interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration.
On Tuesday, the protesters posted online a call for what they called a
“worker intifada,” using language evoking the Palestinian uprisings
against Israeli military occupation that began in 1987.
On Wednesday, the police department said it took 18 people into custody
“for multiple charges, including trespassing, malicious mischief,
resisting arrest, and obstruction.” It wasn’t clear how many were
Microsoft employees. No injuries were reported.
Microsoft said in a statement after the arrests that it “will continue
to do the hard work needed to uphold its human rights standards in the
Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful
actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm
others.”
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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