Protesters in the US have taken over the office of the Microsoft president. All because of the companyʼs alleged cooperation with Israel

In the US, in the city of Redmond (Washington), law enforcement officers on August 27 arrested seven people who occupied the office of Microsoft President Brad Smith during a protest against the companyʼs alleged cooperation with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The Associated Press writes about this.

It all started when The Guardian reported that the Israel Defense Forces was using Azure, Microsoft’s main cloud platform, to support attacks on Palestinian targets, including storing phone data obtained through mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Microsoft subsequently said it had hired an independent law firm to investigate the allegations, but stressed that its terms of service prohibit such use of the cloud platform.

Protests followed. Current and former Microsoft employees were among those detained on Tuesday, according to the protest group No Azure for Apartheid. Microsoft CEO Brad Smith confirmed during a briefing that two of the detainees were Microsoft employees.

The protesters issued a statement explaining their actions as "opposition to Microsoftʼs active participation in the genocide of Palestinians".

“There are many things we can’t change in the world, but we will do what we can and must. First and foremost, we make sure that our human rights principles and terms of service are followed everywhere and by all customers around the world,” Brad Smith told reporters after the arrests.

• The protest group has been protesting against Microsoft for several months. For example, last week, 18 people were detained in the main square near the companyʼs office.
• Earlier this year, the Associated Press reported on Microsoft’s close partnership with the Israeli Defense Ministry, which uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance.
• The AP said the information could be compared with Israel’s internal AI-based systems to select targets. Microsoft said after the AP published the report that its review found no evidence of Azure or AI technology being used to strike or harm people in Gaza.

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