Microsoft has fired four employees who actively protested against the company’s contracts with the Israeli government in the context of the ongoing war in Gaza.
These actions are another example of the growing tensions within the tech giants, whose employees have become increasingly vocal in their opposition to collaboration with the armed forces and intelligence agencies.
The decisions to terminate the contracts, Microsoft explains, were prompted by serious breaches of internal company policies and security concerns, particularly after part of the demonstration moved to the office of one of the CEOs.
The dismissed individuals were part of the ‘No Azure for Apartheid’ group, which is demanding that the company sever its business relationship with Israel and accuses Microsoft of providing technology, including the Azure cloud platform, that is being used to surveil Palestinians and support military activities.
Tensions at the company escalated after the publication of an international journalistic investigation alleging that Israeli military intelligence was using Microsoft Azure services to store and analyse massive data from phone taps of Palestinians.
In response to these reports, Microsoft commissioned an external law firm to audit the case.
The dismissals are not the first such incident at the company. Back in April, two other people lost their jobs after publicly protesting at an internal Microsoft AI CEO event.
The situation at Microsoft is part of a wider trend of labour activism in the IT sector, where ethical and geopolitical issues are becoming an increasingly common battleground between staff and corporate boards. Technology companies face the challenge of reconciling lucrative government contracts with the values and expectations of their employees.
