Microsoft fired two of its employees after they participated in a sit-in protest in the company president’s office, news agency Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The employees were protesting Microsoft’s ties to Israeli military surveillance agencies who allegedly struck deals worth $10 million for supplying the military with its Azure cloud computing and storage services , according to The Guardian, which cited leaked documents and its own personal investigation.
The Guardian report also claimed that the Israeli Defence Forces were storing phone call data obtained from mass surveillance of Palestinian civilians using Microsoft’s software.
Around seven protestors occupied Microsoft President Brad Smith’s office on Tuesday as a sit-in protest against the software firm’s reported involvement.
Anna Hattle and Riki Fameli, the two whose employment was terminated, were a part of this protest. The others were former employees and those outside of the firm.
