411

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

submitted 13 hours ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

76 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 12 points 5 hours ago

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

[-] moseschrute@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Hold up. Azure runs on Linux? Lol could have guessed that, but still is funny.

[-] Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz 2 points 2 hours ago

Azure runs on windows. Hosts run a modified version of Hyper-V.

At least, they did last I checked.

[-] marlowe221@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

I work at a place that uses Azure to run everything (not my choice…).

Everything we have runs on Linux containers, Linux Azure functions, and a VM that runs Ubuntu.

You can run Windows on Azure but you certainly don’t have to.

[-] Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz 1 points 9 minutes ago

We have a similar mix, though I was referring to the underlying virtualisation providing their cloud hosting.

[-] Jrockwar@feddit.uk 7 points 5 hours ago

How do people have the time to organise vigils and get into "coalitions" and politics in the workplace?

Granted I don't work at Microsoft, but I feel me and everyone around me is overworked enough that when we have the time to stop working... We head home (or close the laptop if WFH) and rest, not engage in additional activities in the workplace.

[-] Mojave@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

For every hour of work/coding I do, there is probably 4 to 5 hours of waiting for shit to automatically compile, fetch, build, release, apply, get reviewed, approved, and deployed. The downtime is immense, I spend it helping other people with shit or planning company potlucks (I don't work for Microsoft).

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 6 points 3 hours ago

In giant companies, there's a lot of wasted time and money.

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 hours ago

IDK about you but half of the time I'm at work I'm not actually working. I have like 4 hours of insane productivity, but don't know which 4 hours those will be.

[-] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 41 points 9 hours ago

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.

[-] RageAgainstTheRich@lemmy.world 31 points 9 hours ago

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

[-] Bombastion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 7 hours ago

Seconded! Been using the suite for years and it rocks. It's also multi-OS compatible, which is super handy.

[-] RadioFreeArabia@lemmy.world 68 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

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

[-] grubbyweasel@sh.itjust.works 28 points 12 hours ago

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

load more comments (37 replies)

[-] Clent@lemmy.world 41 points 12 hours ago

Unionize

[-] mEEGal@lemmy.world 32 points 12 hours ago

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

[-] slowmotionrunner@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 10 hours ago

I don't expect companies to be doing that much anymore.

[-] Jackthelad@lemmy.world 17 points 12 hours ago

Why would you organise this on company headquarters without the consent of the company?

If you tell your employers that you hate the way they operate, what do you think is going to happen?

[-] yesman@lemmy.world 47 points 11 hours ago

This is a Neoliberal anthem: rights are for citizens; employees need to sit down and STFU.

Why do we reject tyranny.gov, but embrace tyranny.com?

[-] Jackthelad@lemmy.world 12 points 10 hours ago

You can go on a protest whenever you want. Don't expect your employers to be enthusiastic about it if you organise one in your workplace, however.

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments (11 replies)

load more comments

this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2024

411 points (95.2% liked)

Technology

58893 readers

3721 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS