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Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

(www.theguardian.com)
873 points helsinkiandrew | 4 comments | 25 Sep 25 15:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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politelemon ◴[25 Sep 25 16:11 UTC] No.45374648[source]▶
I am seeing several kneejerk "Microsoft bad" reactions here, which HNers don't do for many other companies. I encourage many of you to read what is written.

They listened to their internal staff and stakeholders and public pressure, and did terminated the contract instead of ignoring it or doubling down.

That is a good thing.

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evolve2k ◴[25 Sep 25 16:26 UTC] No.45374894[source]▶
Yes it’s a good thing AND we don’t need to be celebrating companies when they finally do the bare minimum.

Nobody with any semblance of ethical, just or just plain being a basic good corporate citizen would say.. oh yeah mass surveillance of the comms of a whole population for money is in any way acceptable or ok. This shouldn’t be a tech side note this should be a total meltdown front page scandal. What a disgusting abuse of power by all involved.

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1. bhouston ◴[25 Sep 25 16:35 UTC] No.45375039[source]▶
> Yes it’s a good thing AND we don’t need to be celebrating companies when they finally do the bare minimum.

I think we should give props here. This is an important step forward. Thank you Microsoft!

I think we should protest when companies do things that are wrong and we should give them kudos when they make good moves. Carrot and stick.

I am not fans of those that say because you did wrong things in the past, I will never recognize when you change and make good moves.

I want to encourage more companies to correct their involvement in this.

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2. collinmcnulty ◴[25 Sep 25 16:54 UTC] No.45375376[source]▶
I agree. If we want our pressure campaigns to be successful, we need to reward companies that respond to them.
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3. BrenBarn ◴[25 Sep 25 18:27 UTC] No.45376863[source]▶
But the question is do you want to actually reward behavior that is just less bad than before? Or should that reward just be in the form of less punishment? I agree the consequences should get better in relative terms, but I don't think bad behavior should be rewarded with a positive response, even if the behavior is less bad than before.

It's like, if someone steals a million dollars and then steals a thousand dollars, you don't reward them for making progress.

4. ahf8Aithaex7Nai ◴[25 Sep 25 18:35 UTC] No.45376965[source]▶
What kind of pressure campaign are we talking about here? And what kind of reward? Are we now buying Microsoft products because Microsoft's cloud storage is no longer allowed to be used in genocide, only Office and email? That's absurd. What this is about is public opinion, and that takes years and decades to change. And that's a good thing. If you change your tune after every Microsoft PR release, it's not you who's holding the carrot and the stick, it's Microsoft.