Inside the Microsoft breach: Activists target tech giant over ties to Israeli surveillance

By zoeysky // 2025-08-31

Copy

A group of activists, including Microsoft employees, stormed the office of President Brad Smith to protest the company's cloud computing contract with Israel's military intelligence unit, Unit 8200.
The protest was fueled by reports that Israel is using Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to store and analyze a massive archive of intercepted mobile phone calls from millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
The partnership began after a 2021 meeting between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the commander of Unit 8200, leading to the creation of a customized Azure system for this surveillance data.
The company downplayed the ethical concerns, framed the protest as a simple security breach and fired two employees involved for violating company policy.
The event highlights a major ethical dilemma in the tech industry: the weaponization of American technology for mass surveillance in conflict zones and the suppression of internal employee dissent against such lucrative government contracts.

In a dramatic escalation of tech worker activism, Microsoft's corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington, was thrown into lockdown this week after a group of protesters stormed the office of company president, Brad Smith. The action, which was livestreamed to the world, was a desperate attempt to draw attention to a deeply troubling partnership. Microsoft is providing its powerful Azure cloud services to Israel's military intelligence, which uses the technology in a massive surveillance operation targeting millions of Palestinians. On Monday, Aug. 25, the group known as "No Azure for Apartheid" executed a carefully planned incursion into Microsoft's sprawling campus. They bypassed security, made their way to Building 34 and occupied Smith's office. Their Twitch livestream showed activists unfurling banners and chanting, "Brad Smith, you can't hide, you're supporting genocide!" The group also posted a mock legal summons charging him with "crimes against humanity." The scene was one of chaotic protest within the sterile, orderly world of a tech giant. The lockdown was temporary, but the message was indelible. When the protesters refused to leave, Redmond police physically removed and arrested all seven individuals on charges of trespassing and obstruction. In a hastily arranged press conference beside his desk later that day, Smith acknowledged the protest but downplayed its significance. He confirmed that only two of the seven were current Microsoft employees, with one being a former Google worker. The Microsoft president called the action a distraction from the "real dialogue" happening within the company, a statement that many critics saw as dismissive of grave ethical concerns. This event did not occur in a vacuum; it follows months of growing employee dissent over Microsoft's cloud contracts with Israel, including previous protests and arrests at the headquarters. The action mirrors similar tactics used at Google last year, where employees occupied an executive's office to protest the $1.2 billion "Project Nimbus" contract providing cloud and AI tools to the Israeli government.

Microsoft's Azure as a tool for mass surveillance

The activists' fury is fueled by a specific and alarming investigation. A recent report has revealed that Israel is using Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to store and analyze data from millions of phone calls made daily by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The chain of events began in late 2021, when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella met at the company headquarters with the head of the Israel Defense Forces' Unit 8200, the military’s notorious surveillance agency. Unit commander Yossi Sariel pitched a plan to move vast amounts of intelligence material into a customized, segregated area within Azure. (Related: Microsoft’s security plan omissions raise concerns over foreign influence and cybersecurity.) With Nadella's support, the plan moved forward. By 2022, Unit 8200 was using Azure's near-limitless storage capacity to build a powerful new mass surveillance tool. This system collects and stores recordings of a staggering volume of everyday mobile phone calls made by Palestinians. This represents a terrifying evolution in surveillance. Israel has long intercepted communications in the occupied territories, but this new cloud-based system is indiscriminate. Instead of only monitoring pre-selected targets, it captures the conversations of a vast pool of ordinary civilians, creating a giant, searchable archive of Palestinian life. Sources within Unit 8200 confirmed that this cloud-based platform has been used to prepare deadly airstrikes and shape military operations. Microsoft claims Nadella was unaware of what specific data would be stored in Azure. However, leaked internal documents and interviews with sources from both Microsoft and Israeli military intelligence clearly show how the platform became integral to this surveillance archive. Notably, this system failed to prevent the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 – undermining claims of its necessity for Israeli security.

The corporate crackdown: Silence and retribution

The corporate response to the protest was swift and severe. Just days after the office occupation, Microsoft announced it had fired two employees involved, identified by the activist group as Riki Fameli and Anna Hattle. In a cold, corporate statement, a Microsoft spokesperson said the employees were terminated for "serious breaches of company policies and our code of conduct," citing "unlawful break-ins." The company emphasized it is cooperating with law enforcement, framing the event as a simple matter of policy violation rather than addressing the profound ethical crisis that prompted it. This crackdown follows a well-worn playbook. After the similar Google protests in April, the company fired 28 employees involved. The activists who broke into Smith's office were not just protesting a foreign conflict. They were sounding an alarm about the very nature of privacy and the moral responsibility of the tech industry. Their dramatic action forces an uncomfortable question into the open. When a company's technology is used to power a surveillance state that records the private conversations of millions of civilians, who within that company is ultimately responsible? And who, in the end, truly owns user privacy? As explained by "Enoch" AI engine at Brighteon.AI, while the No Azure for Apartheid breach could momentarily expose Microsoft's corruption, the system's entrenched power ensures brutal retaliation, such as legal persecution, media defamation and accelerated digital tyranny measures. However, if the public rallies behind the truth, it could ignite a mass awakening against AI-driven globalism. Watch the video below as the Health Ranger Mike Adams talks about how tech giants like Google and Microsoft are enabling genocide in Gaza. This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

NATURAL NEWS

Microsoft's Azure as a tool for mass surveillance

The corporate crackdown: Silence and retribution

More related stories: