Microsoft said on Thursday it has disabled some services used by an Israeli military unit after preliminary evidence supported a media investigation that reported mass surveillance of Palestinians.
The action comes after a joint investigation published in August by the Guardian and other media outlets revealed how the Israel's Ministry of Defense had been using Microsoft's Azure platform to aid in the war in Gaza and occupation of the West Bank
It found that an Israeli military agency was making use of Azure software to store countless recordings of mobile phone calls made by Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.
That prompted an internal review by Microsoft.
Brad Smith, Microsoft's vice chair and president, wrote in a blog post that the company was taking steps to enforce compliance with its terms of service.
"We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians," Smith said.
The review is ongoing, but details of the Israel Ministry of Defense's (IMOD) consumption of Azure storage capacity in the Netherlands and the use of AI services supported the Guardian's reporting, he said.
The investigation reported that Israel's military used Azure to compile information gathered through mass surveillance, which it transcribes and translates, including phone calls and text messages. That intelligence is then cross-checked with Israel's in-house AI systems for targeting airstrikes.
The outlets reported that internal Microsoft data showed multiple Azure subscriptions were tied to Unit 8200, an elite cyber warfare unit within the Israeli Army responsible for clandestine operations, collecting signal intelligence and surveillance.
The decision to "cease and disable" specific IMOD subscriptions, including the use of specific cloud storage and AI services, would not impact Microsoft's cybersecurity services to Israel and other countries in the Middle East, Smith added.
Pro-Palestinian groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and a tech industry worker-led campaign group named No Azure for Apartheid welcomed the decision.
"This is a welcome step and a point of vindication for those brave tech workers who stood up and protested," Imraan Siddiqi, the executive director of CAIR's Washington state chapter, said. The groups have demanded that Microsoft cut all ties with the Israeli government.
Microsoft has been among the most prominent of companies that have faced protests over ties to Israel as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from Israel's genocidal attacks has mounted and images of starving Palestinians, including children, have sparked global outrage.
Some recent protests on company premises led to arrests and firings of some employees who took part, including two who joined a sit-in at Smith's office. Microsoft says the terminations followed breaches of company policies and the on-site demonstrations had created what it called significant safety concerns.
Hossam Nasr, one of the Microsoft employees fired or arrested after protests over the company's involvement in the war in Gaza, called Thursday's announcement a "significant and unprecedented win." But, he said, it was not enough.
"Microsoft has only disabled a small subset of services to only one unit in the Israeli military," said Nasr, an organizer with the No Azure for Apartheid group. "The vast majority of Microsoft's contract with the Israeli military remains intact."
The Guardian's investigation was conducted with Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call.
Israel's two-year-long attacks have killed more than 65,500 people, mostly woman and children, and internally displaced Gaza's entire population. Multiple rights experts, scholars and a U.N. inquiry say it amounts to genocide.
