Microsoft’s 50th anniversary celebration was cut short on Friday by a surprise intrusion of pro-Palestinian protesters, including workers, interrupting the live-streamed event held at the tech giant’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The protest started as Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman was showcasing the firm’s AI assistant, Copilot, to an audience with tech legends Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and present CEO Satya Nadella.
“Mustafa, shame on you!” cried Ibtihal Aboussad, a Microsoft employee, as she strode onto the stage, accusing the company of selling AI technology used in Israeli military actions in Gaza. She tossed a keffiyeh — a Palestinian resistance symbol — before being escorted off. Suleyman replied calmly: “Thank you for your protest, I hear you.”
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Ongoing Employee Discontent
The disruption did not stop there. Another Microsoft staff member, Vaniya Agrawal, disrupted a different segment featuring all three Microsoft CEOs on stage together for the first time in more than a decade. This was a very public extension of earlier internal conflict — five employees were pulled out of a private meeting with Nadella in February for demonstrating against the company’s military-linked contracts.
At the centre of the protests is a report by the Associated Press, which broke that AI models created by Microsoft and OpenAI were purportedly used by the Israeli military to choose bombing targets in Gaza and Lebanon. The allegations have sparked outrage, particularly in the face of increasing civilian casualties in Gaza, where local authorities claim more than 61,700 deaths since October 2023.
Microsoft’s Official Response
Microsoft issued a statement reiterating that it embraces varied views but demands that expressions of discontent should not interfere with business. “We offer numerous avenues for all voices to be heard… but request participants to move if they create disruption,” the statement stated.
Big Tech Under a Microscope
The Redmond demonstration is the latest of a mounting sequence of actions against Big Tech firms over their connections to Israel’s military campaigns. Universities, start-ups, and international companies have come under increasing internal pressure and public opprobrium as the Gaza humanitarian crisis worsens.
As Microsoft celebrated fifty years of innovation, its own workers’ voices were heard by the world to remind it that technology’s future cannot be disconnected from its ethics of usage.
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