Microsoft fired two software engineers one day after they protested at a corporate event over the Israeli military’s use of the company’s artificial intelligence products.
Microsoft fired two software engineers one day after they protested at a corporate event over the Israeli military’s use of the company’s artificial intelligence products.
According to documents seen by CNBC, Ibtihal Abussad, a software engineer in Microsoft’s artificial intelligence division based in Canada, was fired on Monday for «willful misconduct, insubordination or willful neglect of duty,» according to one of the documents.
Another Microsoft software engineer, Vaniya Agrawal, said she would be leaving the company on Friday, April 11. But Microsoft fired her on Monday, according to an internal memo seen by CNBC. The company wrote that the decision to fire her «is effective today.»
Both employees chose Microsoft’s 50th anniversary to publicly voice their criticism. What Microsoft had hoped would be a festive period has turned into a brutal few days for the company, which, along with the rest of the market, has been hit hard by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs. It’s a topic that CEO Satya Nadella and his two predecessors, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, were forced to awkwardly discuss on Friday in an interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin.
«As a Microsoft shareholder, I think these kinds of things are not good,» Ballmer said, speaking of the tariffs.
Meanwhile, the celebration itself made headlines more because of the protesters' shared message than because of Microsoft’s half-century of achievements.
«Mustafa, how shameless of you,» Abussaad said as she walked to the stage at an event in Redmond, Washington, to address the head of Microsoft AI. «You claim to care about using AI for good, but Microsoft is selling AI weapons to the Israeli military. 50,000 people have died, and Microsoft is supporting this genocide in our region.»
Abussad also called Suleiman a «war profiteer.» «You have blood on your hands,» she said before she was quickly escorted out. «The entire Microsoft corporation has blood on its hands.»
Shortly after the break, Abussad sent an email, reviewed by CNBC, to Suleiman and other Microsoft executives, including CEO Satya Nadella, CFO Amy Goode, COO Carolina Daybek Gappe and company president Brad Smith.
A pro-Palestinian protester interrupted a speech by Microsoft’s CEO on artificial intelligence during a live broadcast. «I spoke today because after learning that my organization supports the genocide of my people in Palestine, I saw no other moral choice,» Abussad wrote in an email. «This is especially true when I have witnessed Microsoft’s attempts to suppress any dissent from my colleagues who have attempted to raise this issue.»
Abussad continued in the letter: «I did not sign up to write code that violates human rights,» adding a link to the «No Azure for Apartheid» petition.
In an internal memo, Microsoft wrote that Abussad’s email to management was «an admission that you knowingly and intentionally engaged in your previous misconduct.» The company also said that Abussad could have raised his concerns «confidentially with your manager or with Global Employee Relations. Instead, you chose to intentionally disrupt a speech by Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleiman.»
«Immediate termination of your employment is the only adequate response,» Microsoft wrote to the protesters.
At a separate Microsoft event attended by management on Friday, Agrawal interrupted Nadella’s speech with a similar protest and then sent an email to management.
«You may have seen me stand up today to call out Satya during his speech at Microsoft’s 50th anniversary,» Agrawal wrote in an email that was viewed by CNBC on Friday. «Over the past 1.5 years, I have become more aware of Microsoft’s growing role in the military-industrial complex.»
Agrawal wrote that Microsoft is «complicit» as a «manufacturer of digital weapons that enable surveillance, apartheid, and genocide,» adding that «by working for this company, we are all complicit.»
A Microsoft spokesperson said Friday that the company is committed to upholding the highest standards of business conduct.
