Impromptu Press Conference
On Tuesday afternoon, Microsoft President Brad Smith convened a hastily organized press conference following a protest at the company’s headquarters, where demonstrators staged a sit-in inside his office.
Positioned at the edge of his desk in the very office that had been occupied earlier, Smith spoke to reporters and viewers via a live stream, acknowledging the day’s unusual events. “Obviously, this was an unusual day,” he remarked, with the camera shaking slightly as he spoke.
Details of the Protest
The protesters were affiliated with the No Azure for Apartheid group, which has interrupted Microsoft events multiple times this year. Their demands focus on the termination of Microsoft contracts with the Israeli government and military.
Smith affirmed Microsoft’s commitment to upholding human rights principles and contractual obligations in the Middle East, mentioning that the company had initiated an investigation following a report by the Guardian. This report indicated that Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform was allegedly involved in the surveillance of Palestinians. While he expressed disagreement with certain aspects of the report, he acknowledged that other findings warranted further examination.
“We are working every day to get to the bottom of what’s going on, and we will,” Smith stated.
Participants and Consequences
According to Abdo Mohamed, an organizer for No Azure for Apartheid, two current Microsoft employees, Riki Fameli and Anna Hattle, participated in the protest along with former employees Vaniya Agrawal, Hossam Nasr, and Joe Lopez.
Smith revealed that seven individuals were involved in the protest, two of whom were Microsoft employees. He noted that the Redmond police subsequently removed the protesters from the premises.
“When seven folks do as they did today, storm a building, occupy an office, lock other people out of the office, plant listening devices — even in crude form, in the form of telephones, cellphones hidden under couches and behind books — that’s not ok,” he asserted. “When they’re asked to leave and they refused, that’s not ok.”
