Microsoft reportedly enlisted the help of the FBI and local law enforcement to monitor internal dissent over Gaza, flagging employee emails containing the word “Gaza” and disciplining staff who disrupted company events.
Bloomberg reported Tuesday that the tech giant sought to curb employee protests on its Redmond, Washington, campus over the past year. The company allegedly deleted some internal posts related to the demonstrations and suspended or fired workers who openly challenged its leadership.
The actions came as tensions over Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza spread into the corporate world. At Microsoft’s annual Build developers conference in May, an employee interrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote address, accusing the company of enabling Israeli war crimes through its Azure cloud services. The worker, Joe Lopez, was later dismissed, according to CNBC.
Microsoft President Brad Smith defended the company’s policies, saying employees were free to discuss global issues internally but not to disrupt operations. “If we determine that a customer—any customer—is using our technology in ways that violate our terms of service, we will take steps to address that,” Smith said.
The report said Microsoft had turned to federal and local authorities as part of its efforts to monitor protests, a rare move for a U.S. tech company facing internal activism.
Microsoft shares slipped 0.04% in pre-market trading Tuesday. Despite the controversy, the stock has climbed 20% so far this year and 21% over the past 12 months.
