Microsoft employee is bothered by Build 2025 for cloud contracts with Israel

At Microsoft Build 2025 there was a protest: an employee interrupted the keynote from CEO Satya Nadella to protest against the company’s cloud and AI contracts with the Israeli government. It is not the first action of this kind.

Protest disturbs Nadella keynote

A Microsoft employee disrupted the Build developer conference in Seattle by interrupting the keynote of CEO Satya Nadella with “Free Palestine” calls. The CEO was irritated for a moment, but continued his presentation, while the protester from the conference room was escorted. The protester was later identified as Joe Lopez, a firmware engineer from Microsoft’s Azure Hardware team with four years of service.

He was supported by a former Google employee who was involved in seat protests against Google’s cloud contracts with Israel last year. How The verge reports, Lopez sent an email with his statement immediately after his protest to thousands of Microsoft employees. In it he described the statement of corporate management that Microsoft’s azure and AI technologies had not damaged any people in Gaza as a lie:

The leadership rejects our claims that Azure technology is used to attack or damage civilians in Gaza. Those of us who have followed carefully know that this is a brazen lie. Each single byte of data stored in the cloud (most of them are probably data obtained by illegal mass surveillance) can and will be used as justification for making cities equal to the ground and destroying Palestinians. Joe Lopez in his statement

Growing tensions in the company

The incident in Build 2025 is not the first of its kind. The protests against Microsoft’s cooperation with Israel have increased in recent months. The group “No Azure for Apartheid” organizes these actions and asks Microsoft not to provide its cloud services for projects that, in their view, could contribute to human rights violations.

So far, Microsoft has stated his contracts and emphasizes that the technology is used in accordance with the company guidelines. The group recently carried out internal reviews and also published their results, but these are questioned by critical employees such as Lopez.

History of protests

Only recently had two Microsoft employees, who then lost their jobs, disrupted the company’s 50-year celebration. Microsoft’s AI boss Mustafa Suleyman was referred to as “war professional”. This campaign shows that the protests are carried not only by current, but also by former employees.