Microsoft’s 50th celebration party took an unexpected turn on Friday when two people staged pro-Palestinian demonstrations during the company’s high-profile function, raising concerns to its reported engagement with the Zionist government.
The second rally occurred while Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman was presenting changes on the company’s Copilot solution and outlining his long-term perspective. As he spoke, Microsoft individual Ibtihal Aboussad approached the level and interrupted his notes.
” Mustafa, shame on you”, she said. ” You claim that you care about using AI for excellent but Microsoft sells AI arms to the Israeli government. Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft power this murder in our place”.
Suleyman responded,” Thank you for your opposition, I hear you”, before Aboussad continued, accusing the business of having “blood on their fingers”. She therefore threw a keffiyeh scarf—widely seen as a sign of Arab support—onto the step and was escorted from the place.
Afterwards in the event, a second staff, Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted another section featuring Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, past CEO Steve Ballmer, and current CEO Satya Nadella. The three had not appeared up formally since 2014. However, more people rallied outside the stadium.
The opposition followed an Associated Press investigation earlier this year which reported that Artificial resources from Microsoft and OpenAI were used in an Israeli military programme to help determine bombing targets in Gaza and Lebanon. The history included an account of a 2023 attack that falsely hit a civilian aircraft in Lebanon, killing three kids and their mother.
Friday’s marches were not the first. In February, five Microsoft workers were removed from an inner conference with Nadella after protesting the company’s deals related to Israel. However, the celebration event—livestreamed globally—marked the most common setting yet for like opposition.
In a speech, Microsoft said:” We provide some strategies for all tones to be heard. Interestingly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not produce a firm disruption. If that happens, we ask respondents to travel. We are committed to ensuring our business methods uphold the highest standards”.
Aboussad afterwards told the Associated Press that she and Agrawal had lost entry to their work records after the opposition and had been unable to register again in—an evidence they may have been dismissed.
