Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s yearlong war with Hamas.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21800855

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. 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. Mohamed, who is from Egypt, said he now needs a new job in the next two months to transfer a work visa and avoid deportation.

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.

  • @MaggotyEnglish
    15•23 days ago

    The event wasn’t similar to other events. Other events didn’t have a high chance of pissing off major clients. I feel like we need daily Public Service Announcements, “Your employer does not care about you, they only care about your effect on their profits.”

    Over and over again we see this lesson. And while I applaud anyone willing to risk their job to protest their employer’s clients, I’m not going to act surprised when they get fired.