Police arrested seven people on Tuesday who occupied the office of Microsoft president Brad Smith on the campus in Redmond, Wash., this week to protest the company’s business dealings with the Israel Defense Forces.
According to the No Azure for Apartheid group, which is seeking to pressure Microsoft into terminating the Israeli military’s use of its cloud platform, current and former employees were among the protesters.
Activists could be seen huddled together on a Twitch livestream as officers moved in to arrest them, according to the Associated Press. Footage showed a second group protesting outside Smith’s office.
During a media briefing on Tuesday afternoon, Smith confirmed that two of those arrested during the breach were current Microsoft employees.
“There are many things we can’t do to change the world, but we will do what we can and what we should,” he stated. “That starts with ensuring that our human rights principles and contractual terms of service are upheld everywhere, by all of our customers around the world,” he said.
The demonstrations followed Microsoft’s announcement of an “urgent” investigation into allegations that the IDF has utilized the Azure cloud computing platform for mass surveillance of Palestinian civilians. The British newspaper The Guardian reported these claims, prompting Microsoft to engage law firm Covington & Burling for the review.
The Associated Press revealed in February that Microsoft’s partnership with the Israeli Defense Ministry dramatically expanded after the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The IDF’s use of commercial artificial intelligence products increased by a factor of nearly 200 as it employed Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence collected via mass surveillance, the AP report claimed.
In a statement on Tuesday, No Azure for Apartheid said the disruptions were “to protest Microsoft’s active role in the genocide of Palestinians.”
In a protest on Aug. 20, police arrested 18 demonstrators for “multiple charges, including trespassing, malicious mischief, resisting arrest and obstruction,” without saying how many were employees.
Microsoft declared last week that it would “continue to do the hard work needed to uphold its human-rights standards in the Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business, or that threaten and harm others.”
