Microsoft employee disrupts Nadella's keynote: What's behind the protest?
What's the story
Satya Nadella's keynote address at the Microsoft Build developer conference was interrupted by a protester calling for Palestinian rights.
Joe Lopez, an Azure hardware systems team firmware engineer, was one of the protesters who interrupted Nadella.
He was soon joined by a fired Google employee who had previously protested against Google's cloud contract with Israel.
Despite the interruption, Nadella continued his speech as security escorted the protesters out of the Seattle Conference Center.
Employee dissent
Lopez sends email after disruption, sparks internal criticism
After the disruption, Lopez emailed thousands of Microsoft employees expressing disappointment with the company's leadership.
He was "shocked by the silence of our leadership," Lopez wrote, just days after Microsoft defended its contracts amid employee protests.
In the email, which has also been published on Medium, Lopez accused Microsoft's leadership of lying and claimed every byte of data stored on the cloud could be used as justification for violence against Palestinians.
Company response
Microsoft's statement and previous protests
Microsoft recently conducted an internal review and hired a firm to assess its tech's use in Gaza conflict.
The company insists its relationship with Israel's Ministry of Defense is a "standard commercial relationship," and has found no evidence that its Azure and AI caused harm to people in Gaza.
Today's protest comes after two earlier disruptions at Microsoft's 50th-anniversary event, where one protester, called Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, a "war profiteer" and demanded to end AI usage for genocide.
Activist group
No Azure for apartheid: Group behind the protests
The protests were organized by "No Azure for Apartheid," a group of current and former Microsoft employees who oppose the company's contracts with Israel.
The group accuses Microsoft of enabling an apartheid state by continuing to sell cloud and AI services to Israel.
They have highlighted media reports on the Israeli military's increased use of Azure and OpenAI's technology for mass surveillance, transcribing and translating phone calls, texts, and audio messages using AI tools.