Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) President Brad Smith justified employee terminations following Gaza-related office protests while announcing an external investigation into alleged Israeli military misuse of Azure cloud services for Palestinian surveillance.
Executive Defends Protest Firings
At an internal Thursday meeting, Smith delivered blunt messaging to Microsoft employees regarding recent terminations. “Anybody who is smart enough to get a job at Microsoft is smart enough to know that you don’t get to storm in and break into buildings and occupy other people’s offices and keep your job,” Smith stated, according to comments reviewed by Business Insider.
The company fired four employees in late August after protesters occupied Smith’s office and campus facilities. Among the terminated was Azure Storage software engineer Riki Fameli, who criticized Microsoft’s narrow protest definitions and “dead end” internal channels.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment.
Surveillance Allegations Trigger Investigation
Microsoft hired law firm Covington & Burling to probe Guardian reports alleging Israeli Defense Forces’ Unit 8200 used Azure cloud services for mass Palestinian surveillance. Smith acknowledged the August 6 story provided “new information” previously unknown to Microsoft executives.
“That story provided new information to those of us at Microsoft, information that we did not have before,” Smith told employees. The company prohibits customers from using its services for civilian mass surveillance.
Broader Context of Tech Industry Protests
The Microsoft protests reflect wider Silicon Valley tensions over defense contracts. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR), faces similar activist pressure after benefiting from a $1.27 billion Department of Defense Maven Smart System contract ceiling increase.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) share a $1.2 billion Israeli government Project Nimbus cloud computing contract, also drawing protest group attention.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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