Microsoft locks down HQ as anti-Israel protesters live stream themselves storming the company president's office

(Image credit: Photo by Toby Scott/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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.

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Jeremy has been writing about technology and PCs since the 90nm Netburst era (Google it!) and enjoys nothing more than a serious dissertation on the finer points of monitor input lag and overshoot followed by a forensic examination of advanced lithography. Or maybe he just likes machines that go “ping!” He also has a thing for tennis and cars.