The new policy was implemented on Wednesday, following Microsoft’s Build developer conference, which was repeatedly disrupted by No Azure for Apartheid, a group of pro-Palestine Microsoft employees, reports said.
Microsoft has deployed an automated filter on its internal Exchange servers to silently block emails containing these terms from reaching their intended recipients.
Activists say that while “Israel” and modified spellings like “P4lestine” bypass the filter, direct references to Israeli crimes are suppressed.
Microsoft has seen a growing number of protests at recent events over the company’s collaboration with the Israeli military in its ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
According to Drop Site News, internal Microsoft documents show that the company has provided technology to Israel’s ministry of military affairs, “offering them tailored proposals and significant discounts on cloud and AI services.
These deals, negotiated and escalated over months, positioned Microsoft as a key technology provider during Israeli military operations in Gaza.”
This week at Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference, aimed at developers and tech enthusiasts from all over the world, protesters interrupted executives during keynote speeches and sessions.
On Tuesday, Microsoft’s head of Responsible AI, Sarah Bird, was publicly confronted while co-hosting a session with Neta Haiby, a former Israeli military member and Microsoft’s AI security chief.
“Sarah Bird, you are whitewashing the crimes of Microsoft in Palestine,” said Hossam Nasr, an organizer with the group No Azure for Apartheid and a former Microsoft employee.
During another Microsoft Build session earlier in the day, a Palestinian tech worker interrupted Jay Parikh, Microsoft’s head of CoreAI, saying, “Jay, you are complicit in the genocide in Gaza.”
“My people are suffering because of you. How dare you. How dare you talk about AI when my people are suffering. Cut ties with Israel,” the tech worker added.
Microsoft software engineer Joe Lopez was fired on Monday after he interrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote speech onstage, stating, “Satya, how about you show them how Microsoft is killing Palestinians? How about you show them how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?”
At Microsoft’s 50th anniversary event last month, two Microsoft software engineers, Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal, also staged public protests over the use of the tech giant's artificial intelligence technology by the Israeli regime in its war against Gaza. The two were soon fired.
Press TV