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Microsoft (MSFT-0.92%) has reportedly implemented internal email filters that restrict messages containing terms such as “Palestine,” “Gaza,” and “genocide.” The move, which Microsoft described as part of an effort to limit mass, non-work-related messages, has sparked accusations of censorship and bias — particularly amid rising employee protests over the company’s contracts with the Israeli government.
Employee activist group No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) posted Microsoft’s email restrictions on social media, saying people were being blocked from sending messages related to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
NOAA has organized around Microsoft’s role in providing Azure cloud services, including AI tools, to Israeli government entities, which the group says could be used in military operations. Microsoft has maintained that internal and external reviews have found no evidence that its tools have been used to harm civilians in Gaza.
Microsoft confirmed to The Verge that it implemented restrictions to limit “politically focused emails.”
In a statement provided to Quartz, a Microsoft spokesperson said, “Sending unsolicited email to large numbers of employees at work is not appropriate. We have an established forum for employees who have opted into a variety of issues for this reason. Over the past couple of days, a number of emails have been sent to tens of thousands of employees across the company and we have taken measures to try and reduce those emails to those that have not opted in.”
Employees have previously said that pro-Ukraine or DEI-related mass emails were allowed, while their pro-Palestine messages were blocked.
Microsoft has operated an R&D center in Israel since 1991 (the company’s first such center outside the U.S.) and is a major investor in Israel’s startup and cybersecurity ecosystem.
The controversy around Microsoft’s ties to Israel’s government further escalated this week during the Microsoft Build developer conference when employees disrupted addresses by company leadership in order to protest Microsoft’s policies and contracts.
One employee, Joe Lopez, was terminated after disrupting CEO Satya Nadella during a keynote and sending an email to employees where he said he had to take action because of the “silence” of top brass on the company’s links to the Israeli government. Lopez accused the company of a “bold-faced lie” about how Azure is being used in Gaza.
This isn’t Microsoft’s first clash with employees over its government contracts. In recent months, over 1,500 workers have signed an open letter demanding the company end ties with Israeli defense agencies, echoing similar movements at Google (GOOGL-1.57%) and Amazon (AMZN-2.87%).