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

(www.theguardian.com)
873 points helsinkiandrew | 1 comments | 25 Sep 25 15:06 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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codeulike ◴[25 Sep 25 15:22 UTC] No.45373831[source]▶
“I want to note our appreciation for the reporting of the Guardian,” [Microsoft’s vice-chair and president, Brad Smith] wrote, noting that it had brought to light “information we could not access in light of our customer privacy commitments”. He added: “Our review is ongoing.”

Its interesting that they seem to be saying they dont know the full details of how their customers are using Azure, due to privacy commitments.

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covercash ◴[25 Sep 25 15:59 UTC] No.45374443[source]▶
Weird, pretty sure employees brought this to their attention a few times already…

https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-azure-gaza-palestine-is...

https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-azure-gaza-israel-prote...

https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-build-israel-gaza-prote...

https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-protest-employees-fired...

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cl0ckt0wer ◴[25 Sep 25 16:05 UTC] No.45374564[source]▶
If they act on information their employees report, they are violating their commitments.
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sc68cal ◴[25 Sep 25 16:14 UTC] No.45374712[source]▶
There have been public reports by major news organizations on the subject of Israel using big tech companies to surveil the West Bank and Gaza, for a decade. This isn't an issue of customer privacy.
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meowface ◴[25 Sep 25 16:21 UTC] No.45374817[source]▶
The difference is that pre-2023 it could at least have some plausible excuse of trying to detect terrorist activity. With Israel's current actions in Gaza, there is no longer any plausible excuse or defense for any security action Israel is conducting towards Palestinians.
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Aarostotle ◴[25 Sep 25 16:38 UTC] No.45375095[source]▶
Did something happen in 2023 that makes it _less_ relevant for Israel to try to prevent terrorist activity?
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meowface ◴[25 Sep 25 17:46 UTC] No.45376255[source]▶
Israel has a legitimate reason to want to try to intercept and detect terrorist activity, but given what they've been doing in Gaza for the past year and a half, they simply can't be trusted. They've lost all credibility and benefit of the doubt. So they can't expect other entities to help them do something they say is legitimate, because no one can trust them to do something in a legitimate and ethical way.
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dotancohen[dead post] ◴[25 Sep 25 18:55 UTC] No.45377236[source]▶
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meowface ◴[25 Sep 25 19:03 UTC] No.45377369{3}[source]▶
At some point, when basically the entire world is saying one thing and only two countries (the US & Israel) are saying the opposite, you really need something strong to convince someone that basically the whole world is wrong.

This is some lame right-wing outlet whose front page contains things like:

>The assessment, shared exclusively with the Free Beacon, follows mainstream media claims that cuts to global health funding will endanger life-saving programs

While not mentioning that, yes, the Trump administration's USAID cuts absolutely will kill millions of people.

The rest is shitting on Democrats and supporting Trump. Obviously some right-wing site is going to say whatever they can think of to try to defend Israel's actions.

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dotancohen[dead post] ◴[25 Sep 25 19:15 UTC] No.45377556{4}[source]▶
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1. SilverElfin ◴[25 Sep 25 20:00 UTC] No.45378181{5}[source]▶
I wouldn’t have believed this until a few weeks ago. I then stated finding a lot of social media posts where people at pro-Palestine / anti-Israel protests talk about their goals, and many of them flat out say it is to bring down America and end its “empire”. They seem to use the same phrases in talking about this - I wonder if they get a script to use from the nonprofits they are a part of.