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Microsoft fires employees who organized vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza (apnews.com)

submitted 4 days ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas.

The two employees told The Associated Press they were fired by phone call late Thursday, several hours after a lunchtime event they organized at Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington.

Both workers were members of a coalition of employees called “No Azure for Apartheid” that has opposed Microsoft’s sale of its cloud-computing technology to the Israeli government. But they contended that Thursday’s event was similar to other Microsoft-sanctioned employee giving campaigns for people in need.

“We have so many community members within Microsoft who have lost family, lost friends or loved ones,” said Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist. “But Microsoft really failed to have the space for us where we can come together and share our grief and honor the memories of people who can no longer speak for themselves.”

Microsoft said Friday it has “ended the employment of some individuals in accordance with internal policy” but declined to provide details.

Google earlier this year fired more than 50 workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war. The firings stemmed from internal turmoil and sit-in protests at Google offices centered on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.

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[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I'm beginning to think this Microsoft company might fucking suck.

[–] JigglySackles@lemmy.world 0 points 18 hours ago

I mean...they organized in the company headquarters witbout any kind of authorization to do so. Almost any company would have fired those responsible. I don't think it has to do with political opinion so much as unauthorized use of facilities.

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[–] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 41 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Cancel culture strikes again... From the right as usual.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Can't wait to hear Bari Weiss' take on this.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

🦗 🦗 🦗

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 26 points 3 days ago

War Profiteering: It's not just for weapons manufacturers any more!

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 41 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Daily reminder, you have freedom of speech in that the government won't do anything about your speech, but you don't have freedom from speech. Going out and protesting your employer and their business relationships can and will get you fired, no matter how just the cause.

[–] skeezix@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Because profits drive everything

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 8 points 3 days ago

You would think israel pays all of these mega corpos bills... Like holyshit it isba country of 7 million people... Do these mega corps get this bent out for US?

[–] RadioFreeArabia@lemmy.world 105 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (5 children)

We all knew that Microsoft wasn't a good company. Let this news motivate you to switch to GNU/Linux.

[–] grubbyweasel@sh.itjust.works 43 points 4 days ago (44 children)

just deleted windows earlier and am no longer dual booting 👐 Linux is pain but the pain is worth it

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[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 82 points 4 days ago (4 children)

This seems like it should be more of a "write-up" type of offense, rather than skipping straight to terminating employment. This is a vigil, not a protest. Microsoft: "how dare you mourn those killed by a genocidal regime."

BTW - what is everyone's favorite non-MS suite of office programs? I've been using Only Office, but curious what others think.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 6 points 2 days ago

Microsoft makes a lot of money hosting the platform that enables the efficient leveling of Gaza. They're the new IBM in many ways.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 9 points 3 days ago

Israeli attaché said they wanted heads to roll...

All these mega crops got some wierd israeli advisors. Facebook recently got caught bragging about it, not a good look.

[–] RageAgainstTheRich@lemmy.world 56 points 4 days ago (2 children)

100% LibreOffice https://www.libreoffice.org/

[–] JigglySackles@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

I am glad it's worked for so many. I wasn't able to adapt to it.

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[–] Takios@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 4 days ago

In authoritarian environments, any compassion you show the declared enemy is a grave offense and needs to be punished severely.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 54 points 4 days ago (14 children)

As always, fuck Microsoft. Literally been saying this over 30 years already.

Don't use windows, switch to Linux. It's free, actually reasonably secure, actually works, won't spy on you, won't force shit on you just to make you pay more.

Don't use Microsoft azure. It's overpriced and runs in Linux anyway.

Don't use Microsoft 365 online shit. Outlook functions horrendously bad, teams is a sad joke. I unfortunately have to deal with teams every day because government customers thought it was a good idea and EVERY call there is some shit. People can't get in, people don't have audio, people ALWAYS have the wrong audio device selected no matter what and need to spend the first 5 minutes to get their audio and video working. It's shit quality compared to zoom or Google meet or open source alternatieves...

Stop giving this piece of shit your money

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[–] tupalos@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

If it didn’t get approved, I can understand why the company would take that stance.

But I do think they should have just approved the event

[–] Clent@lemmy.world 53 points 4 days ago

Unionize

[–] mEEGal@lemmy.world 51 points 4 days ago (1 children)

remember this when they talk about being gay friendly or anything else even remotely "woke"

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[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Obviously, since they "fix their bugs" so much, they need people to not be distracted. Right? Right? It's not because they're probably racist assholes.

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