Microsoft fires employee for pro-Palestine protest at Build conference
Microsoft has fired an employee, named as Joe Lopez, who interrupted the tech giant’s annual Build developer conference in Seattle this week over the company’s provision of Artificial Intelligence (AI) services to the Israeli military.
The action comes five days after Lopez shouted at Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during a speech he was giving on Monday.
Lopez was working on parts of Microsoft's cloud-computing platform, Azure.
Security escorted the software engineer out of the room as he shouted that he refused “to be complicit in this genocide.”
“Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians,” Lopez yelled. “How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?" Lopez could be heard shouting at Nadella.
Lopez later sent an email to colleagues challenging Microsoft’s claims about how its Azure cloud computing platform is being used during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
The advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid, led by Microsoft's employees and ex-employees, said that Lopez received a termination letter after his protest but couldn't open it.
The Israeli military has been assisted by AI programs designed to produce targets with little human oversight.
Last week, Microsoft admitted that it has been providing AI services to the Israeli military for the genocidal war in Gaza. However, the company said it has found no evidence so far that its Azure cloud or AI tools have been used to directly target or harm civilians in the region.
Microsoft has previously fired employees who protested at company events over its work in Israel, including at its 50th anniversary party in April.
On April 6, two Microsoft workers — Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal, disrupted a Microsoft AI event and called the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) chief – Mustafa Suleyman – a war profiteer. Both workers have since been fired.
