Microsoft fires engineer who disrupted CEO speech over Israeli military AI protest
Joe Lopez interrupted Satya Nadella to condemn the firm’s tech support for Israel. His firing follows earlier pro-Palestinian staff protests
Microsoft has dismissed a software engineer who disrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote address at the company’s flagship developer conference to protest its AI work with the Israeli military.
The protest took place at Microsoft’s annual Build conference in Seattle, where thousands of developers had gathered to hear the latest product announcements. The employee, named as Joe Lopez, interrupted Nadella shortly after he took the stage, shouting about the company’s involvement in the war in Gaza before being escorted from the venue.
Lopez later sent an internal email disputing Microsoft’s public claims about how its Azure cloud services and AI technologies are being used in the conflict. The protest was the first of several pro-Palestinian disruptions during the four-day event, including the interruption of at least three other talks and a livestream briefly taken offline.
Outside the Seattle Convention Centre, demonstrators rallied against the tech giant’s reported contracts with the Israeli military.
Microsoft confirmed last week that it has provided advanced AI capabilities to Israel’s armed forces but said there is no evidence to suggest its tools have been used to target civilians in Gaza.
The employee-led advocacy group ‘No Azure for Apartheid’, which includes current and former staff, said Lopez received a termination letter after the protest – though he was unable to open the attachment. The group also accused Microsoft of blocking internal messages containing words such as “Palestine” and “Gaza”.
The dismissal is the latest in a series of internal clashes over the company’s military and defence contracts. In April, several employees were reportedly fired after raising similar concerns during Microsoft’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
The four-day conference concluded on Thursday.
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