Microsoft fires Indian-origin techie, another for protest during 50th anniversary

A day after an Indian-origin techie confronted current and former Microsoft CEOs – Satya Nadella, Steve Ballmer, and Bill Gates – at the company’s 50th anniversary celebration over its alleged involvement in Israel’s war on Gaza, she announced her resignation effective April 11. However, the tech giant later stated that she had been relieved of her duties immediately.

Soon after a video of software engineer Vaniya Agrawal – where she was seen calling Microsoft’s top bosses ‘hypocrites’ to their faces – went viral, the tech company, in an email, informed her that it “has decided to make your resignation immediately effective today.”

While Agrawal had already handed in her resignation letter, the company asked her to leave five days early.

In her resignation letter, Vaniya wrote that she was leaving the company as she felt that she was “complicit” like her other co-workers in weaponising Israel digitally against Gaza.

“Microsoft cloud and AI enable the Israeli military to be more lethal and destructive in Gaza. It is undeniable that Microsoft’s Azure cloud offerings and AI developments form the technological backbone of Israel’s automated apartheid and genocide systems,” she stated in the letter, as reported by The Verge.

“All this begs the question, which “people” are we empowering with our technology? The oppressors enforcing an apartheid regime? The war criminals committing a genocide?,” she further asked in her resignation letter.

Along with Agrawal, another software engineer, Ibtihal Aboussad, was also fired as she interrupted Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s speech on the same day.

“You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military,” Aboussad screamed at Suleyman, adding, “Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”

In a termination letter, Microsoft stated that Aboussad’s protest was “designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event.”