• Microsoft employees announced today that emails with words relating to Palestine are being blocked from being sent to anyone.
• This comes after a backdrop of anti-Microsoft sentiment from employees.
Microsoft employees announced on Thursday that emails containing the terms “Gaza,” “Palestine,” and “genocide” are being blocked from being sent to anyone both inside or outside the company, as discontent over the company’s connection to Israel has intensified.
In a social media post on Thursday the companies protest group, “No azure to apartheid” announced the email restrictions.
Microsoft later confirmed to The Verge magazine that it hasindeed imposed changes to reduce “politically focused emails” within the company.
The companies protest group, No Azure for Apartheid said: “Microsoft fires Joe Lopez for disrupting Genocide-profiteer Satya Nadella during Microsoft Build Keynote speech and bans words like ‘Palestine’, ‘Gaza’ and ‘Genocide’ in all company emails!!!
"Yet another chapter in a long tale of Microsoft's intimidation, retaliation, repression, and censorship culture."
The move comes after numerous protests Microsoft by employees.
On May 19, Joe Lopez, a firmware engineer on the Azure hardware systems team and member of the activist group No Azure for Apartheid, interrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s speechat the Build 2025 conference in Seattle.
After Lopez’s removal the activist emailed thousands of Microsoft colleagues expressing dismay over the company’s ongoing contracts with Israel’s Defence Ministry.
In the email he said: "I can no longer stand by in silence as Microsoft continues to facilitate Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. "Leadership rejects our claims that Azure technology is being used to target or harm civilians in Gaza.
“Those of us who have been paying attention know that this is a bold-faced lie.”
Microsoft has acknowledged it is providing AI and cloud services to Israel’s Defence Ministry but denied that its products were being used to attack people.
The business claims to have conducted both internal and external investigations and discovered “no evidence to date that Microsoft’s Azure and AI technologies have been used to target or harm people in the conflict.”
The recent action by Microsoft comes at a time the UN humanitarian aid chief has said on Tuesday that 14,000 babies have a risk of passing away in the next 48 hours if no humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza.
Israel’s crippling total blockade that has lasted for 11 weeks has prevented much needed humanitarian aid into Gaza and since the UN announcement, Israel is still restricting substantial amount of aid, making it difficult for aid agencies to operate.
