Microsoft blocks emails containing the terms “Palestine,” “Gaza” and “genocide”

FILE PHOTO: Microsoft has temporarily blocked any emails that contain the words “Palestine” or “Gaza” after employee protests.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Microsoft has temporarily blocked any emails that contain the words “Palestine” or “Gaza” after employee protests at their Microsoft Build event, according to a report The Verge.

The news was first discovered by the protest group No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA). whose employees found that they couldn’t send emails with terms like “Palestine,” “Gaza” and “Genocide” in the subject line or body. 

A Microsoft spokesperson told the outlet that over the past few days thousands of employees had written mails to each other about such political subjects, which was inappropriate. 

During the Microsoft Build conference, there were multiple interruptions from former and current company employees including one during CEO Satya Nadella’s session. The protests were against Microsoft’s contract to provide AI and cloud services to Israeli military. 

Leaked documents, per the report, showed that the company’s Azure cloud service enables surveillance of Palestinians by the Israeli government and has also been used by the Israeli air force to manage databases of potential targets for lethal airstrikes.

A week ago, Microsoft shared a statement saying although they did have cloud and AI contracts with Israel, they had conducted a review to find that there was no conclusive evidence that their tools were being used to target or hurt Gazans.