Microsoft Fires Engineer Who Protested AI Use in Gaza Genocide
Washington (Quds News Network)- Microsoft has fired software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad after she publicly protested the company’s AI use by the Israeli military in the Gaza genocide. CNBC reported the dismissal on Monday, citing internal company documents.
Aboussad worked in Microsoft’s AI division in Canada. She disrupted a company event on Friday, stressing that Microsoft has been enabling war crimes through its technology. She told Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, “You claim that you care for using AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military. Fifty thousand people have died, and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”
Security escorted her out as she continued, calling Suleyman and Microsoft war profiteers.
Shortly after, Aboussad emailed top Microsoft executives, including CEO Satya Nadella. “I did not sign up to write code that violates human rights,” she wrote, linking to a petition titled No Azure for Apartheid.
Microsoft called the protest “willful misconduct”. The company said termination was “the only appropriate response.”
Another engineer, Vaniya Agrawal, also protested at a separate anniversary event on Friday. She planned to resign next week but Microsoft terminated her immediately. In an internal message, the company claimed that her protest caused disruption.
Agrawal had stated that Microsoft has become a “digital weapons manufacturer that powers surveillance, apartheid, and genocide.” She added, “By working for this company, we are all complicit.”
The protests cast a shadow over Microsoft’s involvement in war crimes in Palestine as it marks its 50th anniversary.
