The office of the president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, was briefly occupied by protesters yesterday. Seven people affiliated with a group known as "No Azure for Apartheid" were arrested and eventually removed from Smith's office by local police. Two of the seven are said to be current Microsoft employees.
According to the Verge, the protesters livestreamed themselves on Twitch entering Microsoft's building 34 and occupying the president's office. The video has since been taken down. Microsoft temporarily locked the building down in response.
According to the protest group's website, their core aim is to force Microsoft to, "live up to its own purported ethical values—by ending its direct and indirect complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide." The group wants Microsoft to cut ties with Israel, the most notable alleged example of which involves claims that its Azure cloud platform has been misused by the Israeli military as part of the surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza.
Smith held a press conference in his office after the protesters had left and said that a Guardian report revealing the use of Azure by the Israeli military was a "fair job" but that "much of what they reported now needs to be tested.”
He reportedly emphasised the vast majority of the company’s work for the Israeli Defense Force is to, “protect the cybersecurity of the State of Israel.” He also added, “we cannot do everything that we might wish to change the world, but we know our role. We’re here to provide technology in a principled and ethical way.”
What's more he signalled that he wasn't against protests, per se. “People can go protest in public spaces, whether it’s at the Redmond Transit Center or in a kayak on a public lake outside my house,” he said.
Reportedly, protesters took to Lake Washington in kayaks on Sunday, hoisting banners reading “Microsoft Kills Kids” in front of the homes of Smith and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Yesterday's office occupation was just the latest in a series of protests conducted by the No Azure for Apartheid group. Last week, several Microsoft employees including one of the seven from yesterday's action, Anna Hattle, were arrested after Redmond police claimed they had become "aggressive". The group also disrupted Microsoft's 50th anniversary celebrations.
As for the fate of the two Microsoft employees involved in the office sit-in, Smith rather understatedly said that their behaviour was, "not standard employee conduct."
