Microsoft protesters occupy president’s office as company reviews its work with Israel’s military

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Police arrested seven people Tuesday after they occupied the office of Microsoft President Brad Smith as part of continued protests over the company’s ties to the Israel Defense Forces during the ongoing war in Gaza, organizers said.

Current and former Microsoft employees were among those arrested, said the protest group No Azure for Apartheid. Azure is Microsoft’s primary cloud computing platform, and Microsoft has said it is reviewing a report in a British newspaper this month that Israel has used it to facilitate attacks on Palestinian targets.

The protesters could be seen huddled together on a Twitch livestream as officers moved in to arrest them. The video showed another group assembled outside.

During a media briefing Tuesday afternoon, Smith said two of those arrested were Microsoft employees.

Eighteen people were arrested in a similar protest in a plaza at the headquarters last week. The group has been protesting the company for months. Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella, and in April it fired two others who interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration.

The group’s demands include that the company cut ties with Israel and pay reparations to Palestinians.

The British newspaper The Guardian reported this month that the Israel Defense Forces had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

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Microsoft has said it hired an outside law firm to investigate the allegations, but that its terms of service would prohibit such use.

“There are many things we can’t do to change the world, but we will do what we can and what we should,” Smith told reporters at a media briefing following Tuesday’s arrests. “That starts with ensuring that our human rights principles and contractual terms of service are upheld everywhere, by all of our customers around the world.”

Earlier this year, The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details about Microsoft’s close partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, which uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance. The AP reported that the data can be cross-checked with Israel’s in-house, AI-enabled systems to help select targets.

Following The AP’s report, Microsoft said a review found no evidence that its Azure platform and artificial intelligence technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. Microsoft did not share a copy of that review, but the company said it would share factual findings from the further review prompted by The Guardian’s report when complete.

In the statement Tuesday, the protest groups said the disruptions were “to protest Microsoft’s active role in the genocide of Palestinians.”