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‘Free Palestine’ … slogans disrupted Microsoft’s biggest event of the year 2025, Build 2025. Shortly after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the stage at Microsoft Build conference, an employee interrupted the speech by shouting “Free Palestine” and demanding accountability from the CEO for the company’s work with the Israeli government. Microsoft Build is the company’s annual developers conference. This is the second time this year that an event with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on stage has been disrupted. Earlier this year, similar ‘Free Palestine’ protests were made by some employees at the company’s 50 year celebrations when Microsoft current CEO Satya Nadella and former CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer were on stage. At another Microsoft 50th anniversary event, a Microsoft employee stood up and called Microsoft’s AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman a “war profiteer.” The protesting Microsoft employees are against the company’s cloud and AI contracts with the Israeli government.
What Microsoft employee shouted
“How about you show them how Microsoft is killing Palestinians? How about you show them how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?” the employee yelled from the audience before being confronted and dragged away by security. “As a Microsoft worker, I refuse to be complicit in this genocide,” he shouted. What happened after CEO Satya Nadella’s speech was disrupted by Microsoft employee Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella continued with his keynote address as the protesting employee was escorted out of the hall by the security.
Who is Microsoft employee who disrupted the event
The employee is Joe Lopez, a four-year veteran of Microsoft’s Azure hardware systems team, according to The Verge. Similar to the earlier protests, shortly after his in-person protest, Lopez reportedly sent a company-wide email to thousands of Microsoft employees. “Leadership rejects our claims that Azure technology is being used to target or harm civilians in Gaza,” Lopez wrote, per The Verge. “Those of us who have been paying attention know that this is a bold-faced lie. Every byte of data that is stored on the cloud (much of it likely containing data obtained by illegal mass surveillance) can and will be used as justification to level cities and exterminate Palestinians.”The message appears to be in response to Microsoft’s recent statement that, after an internal review, it found no evidence that the Israeli military has used Azure or the company’s AI technology to target or harm Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Fired Google employee “joined” the Microsoft protest
Report suggests that the protesting employee was also joined by a fired Google employee who was part of last year’s sit-in protests against Google’s cloud contract with Israel. The disruptions appear to have been organised by the group ‘No Azure for Apartheid’. The group also shared the posts of the protests on its social media handles. The group is reportedly made up of current Microsoft employees who want the company to terminate all contracts with the Israeli military and government. The group has a series of ongoing planned actions to display their objection to the company’s continued business with the country that has been found by multiple human rights organizations to be committing a genocide.
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