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

theguardian.com

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

#331

Post by Joeboy »

catigula wrote: post #313
Joeboy wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a country was killing thousands of people and saying it was to make people like you safer, might you not be inclined to point out it's having the opposite effect?

No, that isn't my general reaction to Hitler saying he killed Jews to make Europeans safer. My reaction is "what are you talking about, psycho murderer?" That's a good look, try that.

Perhaps we'll have to agree to differ, but I think American Jews being like "not in my name" sends a more politically effective message than "what are you talking about, psycho murderer?".

tbf I'm not primarily interested in what's a good look.

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

#332

Post by mupuff1234 »

basilgohar wrote: post #185
vkou wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, here, that would have the stench of colonialism about it. It's not their land to 'return to' - after all, people already live there and they have no moral right to displace them.

How do you think Israel was formed in the first place? Or is your comment intentionally ironic?

How do you think most countries or borders were formed? It's almost all wars and displacement.

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

#333

Post by bhouston »

everdrive wrote: post #280
bhouston wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm confused what this really means. Countries don't store their really secret things in Azure. So what do we think the source of this surveillance was? Why wouldn't countries store secret data in Azure, Google Cloud and AWS services? I think that this is quite common.

I think you're misunderstanding my question. I'm not saying "this story is bogus," but rather I'm saying that this sort of data is probably not the kind of data which is acquired through really secret means. Perhaps it was purchased from providers, or some other less-secret method.

Israel actually had a bunch of rules where Palestinians are not allowed to have 5G or 4G networks to ensure that they can be monitored.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/israeli-restri...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_in_Palestine

And yes it is recording pretty much all calls in Palestine:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/microsoft-isra...

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

#334

Post by JumpCrisscross »

WhereIsTheTruth wrote: post #304
politelemon wrote: post #93

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.

Will Microsoft rehire the employees who were fired for protesting? No? Hmm, then you should not let Microsoft whitewash its record by taking credit for the very cause those workers were punished for defending

> Will Microsoft rehire the employees who were fired for protesting?

One can be correct in theory and wrong in practice at the same time.

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

#335

Post by mrits »

computerex wrote: post #128
zeroonetwothree wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legal definitions are often up for discussion and debate. That’s a large part of what lawyers do, in fact. Anyway I have no comment on the specific claim being made here, I just really dislike it when discussion is stifled by saying “I’m right and no one can ever disagree”.

That's like debating the definition of homicide or rape. There is no nuance here.

Homicide? Like abortion? No nuance?

Rape? Like age of consent being different across regions and time? No nuance? Like how half the planet laughs when a boy gets molested by his attractive teacher and the other half calls it rape?

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

#336

Post by meowface »

Aarostotle wrote: post #175
meowface wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Did something happen in 2023 that makes it _less_ relevant for Israel to try to prevent terrorist activity?

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.

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

#337

Post by halflife »

basilgohar wrote: post #219
skinkestek wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not ignore the last 60-70 or even 1400 years. Israelis hit back hard. But they haven't been the ones to declare war on peaceful neighbors. It wasn't them who stood for thr München massacre or a number of plane hijackings in the 70ies. It wasn't Israelis who blew up buses in Gaza. Was it? We must stop confusing powerful with evil and currently helpless with "innocent".

What a delightful selection of specific incidents. In just the past two weeks Israel attacked a half dozen of its neighboring countries. Israel itself is a belligerent Western colony that has been ethnically cleansing Palestine since the 1940s. It is the obligation for an occupied people to resist their occupiers, and according to the UN that is up to and includes violent resistence. The entirety of Palestine has bee…

Half a dozen? Let’s do inventory!

Lebanon’s - hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel on oct 8th 2023 Iraq - fired rockets in solidarity of Gaza Yemen - fired rockets in solidarity of Gaza Syria - fired rockets in solidarity of Gaza Iran - fired the largest array of ballistic missiles to Israel after Israel bombed an consulate in Syria where Hamas and hezbolla were congregating Qatar - that’s the only country that didn’t physically attack Israel, but they did finance Hamas for the past decade, and operate a global information war against Israel via Al Jazeera

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

#338

Post by hashim »

colpabar wrote: post #264
t-writescode wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the protestors help the media publicity?

I really wonder if a company like microsoft has any real concern over people tweeting negative things about it. It seems like companies are finally realizing a lot of it can just be ignored, but with microsoft specifically, what’s the risk? Who in a position to deny ms enough money that they’d care or even notice is going to decide to do it based on people protesting?

Yes, unfortunately this is what happens when you have people who are constantly critical of Microsoft based on what they know of the company from the 90s and 00s, it devalues genuine modern criticisms and makes all criticism meaningless.

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

#339

Post by basilgohar »

skinkestek wrote: post #303
basilgohar wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a delightful selection of specific incidents. In just the past two weeks Israel attacked a half dozen of its neighboring countries. Israel itself is a belligerent Western colony that has been ethnically cleansing Palestine since the 1940s. It is the obligation for an occupied people to resist their occupiers, and according to the UN that is up to and includes violent resistence. The entirety of Palestine has bee…

Leaving Quatar aside, because seriously that puzzles everyone including me: what half a dozen countries are you referring to?

Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Qatar and Yemen [0].

[0] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/10/maps-israel-has-att...

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

#340

Post by mikestew »

nashashmi wrote: post #148
sugarpimpdorsey wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a funny way to say "they fired staff that vandalized company property, broke into the CEO's office, and used an internal company website to publish and promote anti-company propaganda". That will get you fired from bussing tables or washing dishes, let alone a six-figure job at MS. Edit: Source on the last one; the first two were widely reported on in media: https://lunduke.substack.com/p/fired-microsoft-emplo…

One protestor was fired after interrupting a CEO's speech.

If I interrupt the CEOs speech at a public conference, yeah, I fully expect to get canned. It’s not like this was an internal all-hands or summat.
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