{"id":10532,"date":"2025-04-08T20:01:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T20:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/microsoft-reportedly-fires-staff-whose-protest-interrupted-its-copilot-event\/"},"modified":"2025-04-08T20:01:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T20:01:25","slug":"microsoft-reportedly-fires-staff-whose-protest-interrupted-its-copilot-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/microsoft-reportedly-fires-staff-whose-protest-interrupted-its-copilot-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft reportedly fires staff whose protest interrupted its Copilot event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Software <\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><span>In Brief<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Posted:<\/p>\n<p><time datetime=\"2025-04-07T14:36:21-07:00\">2:36 PM PDT \u00b7 April 7, 2025<\/time><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<figure><img width=\"1024\" height=\"534\" src=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-04-at-1.14.37PM.png?w=1024\" alt=\"software Microsoft Copilot keynote\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  ><figcaption><strong>Image Credits:<\/strong>Microsoft<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Maxwell-Zeff.jpg?w=668\" alt=\"software Maxwell Zeff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\">On Monday, Microsoft reportedly terminated the roles of two software engineers, Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal, who protested the company\u2019s reported dealings with the Israeli military during Microsoft\u2019s Copilot and 50th anniversary event last week.<\/p>\n<p>According to an internal message viewed by CNBC, Microsoft wrote that Aboussad could have raised concerns \u201cconfidentially with your manager, or with Global Employee Relations. Instead, you chose to intentionally disrupt the speech of Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last Friday, during the event, Aboussad shouted that Suleyman had \u201cblood on his hands,\u201d interrupting him while he delivered a keynote about new AI products. Later that day, Agrawal interjected during a panel featuring Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, former CEO Steve Ballmer, and founder Bill Gates, shouting \u201cshame on all of you\u00a0\u2026 Cut ties with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after the incidents, Aboussad sent an email to Microsoft staff and executives claiming the company had silenced certain dissenting employees, according to CNBC. The email reportedly contained a link to a petition from \u201cNo Azure for Apartheid,\u201d a group of Microsoft staffers who have made headlines for their protests against the company\u2019s work with Israel in the past.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h3>Newsletters<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Subscribe for the industry\u2019s biggest tech news<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<form method=\"POST\" action=\"\/\"><\/form>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Software Related<\/h2>\n<div>\n<h2>Software Latest in Government &#038; Policy<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Software In Brief Posted: 2:36 PM PDT \u00b7 April 7, 2025 Image Credits:Microsoft On Monday, Microsoft reportedly terminated the roles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7282,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7282"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}