Microsoft fire employees who protested the sale of genAI tech to the Israeli military
"All of Microsoft has blood on its hands," says now-terminated software engineer
Two Microsoft software engineers who interrupted a Microsoft anniversary event to protest against the company's dealings with the Israeli military have been fired for misconduct, according to a report. Software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad, who is based in Canada and once worked for the company's genAI division, lost her job on Monday 7th April due to "wilful misconduct, disobedience or wilful neglect of duty," according to internal documents picked up by CNBC. Another Microsoft software engineer, Vaniya Agrawal, had announced that she would resign on April 11th, but according to another document cited by CNBC, Microsoft have terminated her job in advance.
Microsoft's business dealings with Israel's defence establishment have been in the spotlight recently thanks to investigations by the Guardian, +972 Magazine, Local Call, Drop Site News and the Associated Press. In a lengthy and very disturbing article from February, the AP claim that the Israeli military's use of Microsoft computing services and OpenAI technologies has "skyrocketed" to "nearly 200 times higher" since the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas and other Palestinian militants on 7th October 2023.
The AP report is based upon interviews with current and former members of Microsoft and the Israeli armed forces, together with internal company data and documents. It claims that the Israeli military have used "AI-enabled systems" for intelligence operations during Israel's subsequent invasion and bombardment of Gaza, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people. It also discusses the use of genAI transcription software and Microsoft Azure for mass surveillance. There's a lot more in the full piece, which doesn't begin and end with Microsoft's alleged involvement: the AP also discuss the Israeli military's relationship with other big tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Palantir, Cisco and Oracle.
Prior to Aboussad and Agrawal's intervention, many Microsoft employees have spoken out against their employer's reported involvement with Israel's armed forces. Back in May 2024, Microsoft workers launched a petition calling on the company to disclose all ties with the Israel Defense Forces, submit to an independent audit for potential human rights violations, protect employees speaking up for Palestinians, and overall "end Microsoft's complicity in Israeli genocide and apartheid by terminating all Azure contracts and partnerships with the Israeli military and government". The signatories are also pushing Microsoft to make a formal call for a ceasefire. "The products and services we build are being used and distributed around the globe to surveil, censor, and destroy," the organisers write. "We cannot stand by while our labor is utilized to aid in the oppression of innocent people."
Aboussad and Agrawal both took action on Friday 4th April at separate events organised to celebrate Microsoft's 50 year anniversary. As reported by CNBC, Aboussad approached the stage during a speech from Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman in Redmond, Washington, calling him a "war profiteer" and declaring that "all of Microsoft has blood on its hands," before being escorted out. "Mustafa, shame on you," she said. "You claim that you care for using AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military. Fifty thousand people have died, and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region."
Aboussad subsequently spelled out her grievances in an email to Suleyman and Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella, finance chief Amy Hood, operating chief Carolina Dybeck Happe, and company president Brad Smith. "I spoke up today because after learning that my org was powering the genocide of my people in Palestine, I saw no other moral choice," she wrote. "This is especially true when I've witnessed how Microsoft has tried to quell and suppress any dissent from my coworkers who tried to raise this issue." This last part may be a reference to Microsoft's firing last year of Abdo Mohamed and Hossam Nasr after they held a vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza.
In further correspondence cited by CNBC, a Microsoft contact then told Aboussad that her email to executives served as "an admission that you deliberately and willfully engaged in your earlier misconduct", adding that she could have aired her grievances "confidentially with your manager, or with Global Employee Relations. Instead, you chose to intentionally disrupt the speech of Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman." The message to Aboussad concludes "that your misconduct was designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event", and that "immediate cessation of your employment is the only appropriate response."
As for Agrawal, she interrupted a speech by Nadella at another event, and sent a similar email to executives afterwards. "You may have seen me stand up earlier today to call out Satya during his speech at the Microsoft 50th anniversary," Agrawal writes in the email, as reported by CNBC. "Over the past 1.5 years, I've grown more aware of Microsoft's growing role in the military-industrial complex." Agrawal further argued that Microsoft are "complicit" in the bloodshed as a "digital weapons manufacturer that powers surveillance, apartheid, and genocide", and that "by working for this company, we are all complicit."
Microsoft have yet to say anything about all this publicly save for the following statement to PCGamer: "We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard. Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate." The company have also yet to comment on last week's news that the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement have made Microsoft a "priority target", and are calling on supporters to avoid Microsoft and Xbox gaming services and products.