Under pressure, Microsoft cuts some services to Israeli military
Published in Business News
Microsoft is disabling some of cloud computing services provides to an Israeli military unit after it found evidence backing up reports that the technology was used to surveil Palestinian civilians.
The tech giant has faced backlash from activists over its ties with the Israeli government, including escalating protests on the company’s campus. Microsoft launched two investigations this year in response to claims that the Israel Ministry of Defense was using Microsoft’s Azure cloud technology in military capacities, which violate certain terms of service.
In May, after the first internal review, Microsoft said it found no evidence Azure technology was used by Israel to target people in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Less than three months later, The Guardian and two regional publications — +972 Magazine, an Israeli-Palestinian outlet, and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call — reported that Israeli military spy agency Unit 8200 was using Microsoft’s cloud computing services to store surveillance data on civilians in Gaza.
Those reports triggered a second independent investigation by Microsoft in mid-August. The investigation is ongoing but on Thursday, Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote in a company blog that the company found evidence that “supports elements of The Guardian’s reporting.”
“As I’ve said to you in recent weeks, Microsoft is not a government or a country,” he wrote. “We are a company. Like every company, we decide what products and services to offer to our customers.”
Microsoft has informed the Israeli military that it’s cutting off specific subscriptions and services, including cloud storage and artificial intelligence technology, but it’s not severing all ties with the Israeli government. Smith said the move does not impact the cybersecurity work it provides for Israel and other countries in the Middle East.
Microsoft has Azure regions — clusters of datacenters to provide cloud services to a specific geographical location — in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, in addition to Israel. The company announced in March that it’s developing an Azure region in Kuwait.
“We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians,” Smith wrote. “We have applied this principle in every country around the world, and we have insisted on it repeatedly for more than two decades.”
Microsoft has also had to conduct the investigation while adhering to of one of its principles, which is that it doesn’t violate the privacy rights of its customers, according to Smith. Therefore, Microsoft didn’t access the Israel Ministry of Defense’s content during the investigation.
“Rather, the review has focused on Microsoft’s own business records, including financial statements, internal documents, and email and messaging communications, among other records,” Smith wrote.
The company’s updates throughout the investigations have not met the demands of No Azure for Apartheid, the group of activists protesting all of Microsoft’s ties with the Israeli government. But in response to Microsoft’s announcement, No Azure for Apartheid called the move an “unprecedented win” for its campaign but also insufficient.
“Microsoft’s response is inadequate, but it is also the first known instance of a US technology company withdrawing services provided to the Israeli military since the beginning of the genocide,” the group said in a statement.
No Azure for Apartheid began its protests with employees disrupting company events, including a 50th anniversary on Microsoft’s campus and an annual conference in downtown Seattle earlier this year, calling on executives to cut itself off from Israel. Those employees were fired and tensions escalated in August when the group occupied a plaza on Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, campus and several were arrested.
In late August, four employees were fired after protesters breached Smith’s office and participated in a sit-in.
Microsoft isn’t the only company clashing with workers over contracts with the Israeli government. Earlier this month, Amazon suspended an employee who protested the company’s $1.2 billion joint contract with the Israeli government that it shares with Google called Project Nimbus.
Last year, Google fired dozens of employees who staged sit-ins at the company’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, protesting the contract.
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