A Microsoft employee calls the AI boss a war profiter on the 50th anniversary
Microsoft cut ties with genocide: We don’t want to be on the wrong side of history, but we can do our part: Microsoft Azure for Apartheid
A year and a half ago, I joined Microsoft just as I started to witness the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people by Israel, which started in 1948. I’ve watched as the UN, the International Criminal Court, and multiple human rights organizations condemned Israel’s violations of human rights including the indiscriminate carpet bombing of hospitals and schools. And as I write this, Israel has broken the ceasefire and resumed its full-scale genocide in Gaza. It was recently revealed that Israel killed fifteen paramedics and rescue workers in Gaza and buried them in the sand. Our labor powers this injustice and I cannot be part of a company that participates in it.
Microsoft has also been providing software, cloud services, and consulting services to the Israeli military and government, totaling millions in profit. Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned his ties to Microsoft. A list of these contracts with the Israeli military and government can be found here: An introduction to Microsoft’s involvement in the wrong places.
“The Israeli military uses Microsoft Azure to compile information gathered through mass surveillance, which it transcribes and translates, including phone calls, texts and audio messages, according to an Israeli intelligence officer who works with the systems. Data can be cross-checked with Israel’s targeting systems.
One of the priority boycott targets of the campaign was Microsoft, because it was so connected to the Israeli military.
Regardless of your political beliefs, is this a legacy we want to leave behind? Is working on deadly AI weapons something you can tell your children about? Do we want to be on the wrong side of history?
Even though your work could be unrelated to the cloud that the military uses, your work benefits the company and allows it to take on the contract. Regardless of your team, you serve a company that is arming the Israeli occupation. It is obvious that part of your compensation is being paid by genocide.
This is why I signed the petition to demand Microsoft cut ties with genocide, and why I am speaking up today. And I implore you to do the same.
Sign the No Azure for Apartheid petition: We will not write code that kills. You can add your voice to the growing number of Microsoft employees who are concerned.
Join me in showing our discontent in this thread. If you also feel tricked into deploying weapons which target children and civilians, urge leadership (CC’ed) to drop these contracts.
The human rights statement from Microsoft forbids retaliation against anyone who raises a human rights related concern.
I disrupted the speech of Microsoft’s CEO while he was speaking at the 50th anniversary celebration. Here is the reason.
Like most, I joined Microsoft believing in its mission to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” I believed in its “commitment to respecting and promoting human rights.” I thought that Microsoft was focused on giving and promoting rights around the world.
Leaving Microsoft is not an option for a lot of people. If you must continue to work at Microsoft, I urge you to use your position, power, and privilege to hold Microsoft accountable to its own values and mission:
