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In context: Microsoft has fired the two employees involved in a protest during the company’s recent 50th-anniversary celebration. The termination was attributed to misconduct, as stated in an internal email. Both individuals had previously sent mass emails to thousands of employees, urging the company to end its contracts with the Israeli government. One employee was let go by Microsoft Canada, while the second had already submitted his resignation prior to the demonstration.
One of the employees, Ibtihal Aboussad, interrupted a presentation by Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s head of AI, during the anniversary event. Following the incident, she sent an email to various internal distribution lists expressing opposition to the company’s involvement with the Israeli military, reaching hundreds or thousands of Microsoft employees, including CEO Satya Nadella, finance chief Amy Hood, and company president Brad Smith.
In the email, she claimed that Microsoft’s AI technology was being used in ways that violated human rights and stated, “I did not sign up to write code that violates human rights.” Aboussad also urged colleagues to sign the “No Azure for Apartheid” petition demanding Microsoft sever ties with the Israeli military.
Unsurprisingly, Microsoft was not pleased with Aboussad’s actions. The company responded by stating that Aboussad’s actions – both the disruption and her internal communication – were deliberate violations of company policy.
Microsoft emphasized that concerns about corporate ethics or business decisions should be raised through appropriate internal channels, such as a direct manager or Global Employee Relations. The internal memo described her behavior as “intentionally disruptive” and aimed at drawing attention at the expense of the event’s purpose.
“The only appropriate response to such misconduct was the immediate termination of employment,” the internal communication said.
A second employee, Vaniya Agrawal, engaged in a similar action on the same day, interrupting a speech by CEO Satya Nadella at a different company event. Agrawal had also sent emails to other employees and leadership criticizing the company’s technology partnerships, calling Microsoft a “digital weapons manufacturer that powers surveillance, apartheid, and genocide.”
Agrawal said she intended to resign from Microsoft on April 11, but the company told her on Monday that it had decided to make her resignation effective immediately.
On both accounts, the company said that as their misconduct was designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to the events, the only appropriate response was immediate cessation of their employment.
The protests came during the same week that the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement called on people to cancel their Game Pass subscriptions, avoid Microsoft video game properties such as Minecraft and Call of Duty, and boycott all Microsoft Gaming and Xbox-branded products to protest the company’s business dealings with the Israeli military.
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