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

theguardian.com

371–380 of 894 posts

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

#371

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.

It has come a tad too late to be called a good thing.

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

#372
post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like interrupting a CEO's speech at a big conference is pretty well understood to be a social indicator of a high level of insubordination. I suspect the protestor knew that too. The consequences were appropriate, even if I might share some of the protestor's concerns.

> insubordination Are we talking about the military or some company?

LOL. The military isn't the only organization with a hierarchy.

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

#373
post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine you kill my dad, steal his house and turn me out into the street; you get convicted and sent to jail and your son gets to keep the house.

That what Jordan did to the Jews in Jerusalem, and then handed the house to Palestinians who decided they want to make it their capital.

You say "the Jews" but you're leaving out that there are Arab Jews and European ones. Arab Jews have lived in Palestine for hundreds of years alongside other Arabs peacefully in coexistence.

The arrival of Zionist European Jews was a phenomonen of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Zionist Jews that came from Europe brought with them a supremecist ideology that, in their eyes, justified all forms of violence committed against the Muslim, Christian, and yes, Jewish Palestians that opposed their colonization.

I don't know what you're making or misrepresenting in your statememt about Jordan and Jerusalem, but Jews have always lived in Jerusalem since the Muslims first took control of it 1400 years ago when Umar ibn El-Khattab brought back in Jews who had been expelled by the Christian rulers prior to that.

Jews have always prospered under actual religious Muslim rule, whether in Palestine, Spain, Morocco, Iran, or otherwise. Zionism is what drove a rift between Muslims and Jews in past two centuries, as prior to this there never was one.

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

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people seem to think rioting and vandalism are acceptable behaviors. It's important that people engaging in such activity are dealt with swiftly and justly. Such behavior further encourages violence and destruction as acceptable behaviors in society, which they are not.

Rioting and vandalism are unacceptable...until they aren't and are instead necessary. Is everyone so quick to forget that the rights we have today in the US were won through violence after all other methods failed? The 40 hour work week we enjoy today was also won through blood. Now, in this case between employees and Microsoft I'd agree, no, vandalism wasn't necessary at all. But when it comes to defending our right…

It's a difficult question, because obviously violence is out of line for protests about many topics, while just as obviously necessary for some.

I think think that violence or vandalism in this case was unwarranted, but there are some other in this thread who believe otherwise.

I guess that I'd say that, probably, vandals/criminals should always be punished, because they're doing clearly illegal things... and it's up to the protestors to judge whether the cause they're supporting is really worth going to jail for. If sufficient numbers of people feel that, you have a revolution.

(And also, a separate issue, whether the violence is actually going to benefit their cause. It probably won't.)

I certainly don't think that we should be in a position where courts are are judging certain crimes as forgivable because of their cause, while supporters of other causes get the full weight of the law for similar actions. I think the vandals on Jan 6th should get the same punishment as, for instance, similar vandals during BLM.

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

#375
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have been deliberately displaced by Israeli's apartheid government giving Jewish people around the world a "right to return" to Israel. Except unlike the Palestinians, they were never from Israel in the first place so the term "right to return" as used by Israel is nothing but colonialist propaganda. Undoing colonialism isn't colonialism.

[flagged]

No. You're just factually wrong. This is a made-up statement with no truth to it.

Arab Jews were living peacefully side by side in Palestine before the European Zionist colonizers started coming in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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

#377
post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might have 1A rights as an American but it seems to me the manner in which this person protested would be grounds for termination in many jurisdictions.

1A doesn't apply to private entities anyway. 1A protects against government prosecution for your speech, and the government may make no laws "abridging the freedom of speech." But your employer? They can put whatever rules and restrictions they want on your speech, and with at-will employment, can fire you for any reason anyway, at anytime. You can say whatever you want, but you aren't free from the consequences of t…

This comment sums up well how the spirit of the law is not being upheld, given that the biggest players in government, finance, and the corporate world are working together hand in glove.

>”Corporations cannot exist without government intervention”

>”Some privates companies and financiers are too big to fail/of strategic national importance”

>”1A does not apply to private entities (including the above)”

>”We have a free, competitive market”

I find it very difficult to resolve these seemingly contradictory statements.

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

#378
post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The problem here is thinking that the only form of protest anyone ever engages in is tweeting things. Some people stop supporting companies they disagree with, both individually and, if they're able, with their own company.

But that’s my point - who will do that? Who is going to go to their company’s CEO and convince them to put in the massive amount of effort to switch cloud providers? Who is going to say “I don’t think we should use Teams anymore” and actually be able to switch to something else? I have no idea if microsoft even cares about retail customers anymore, but are there really enough people who are going to boycott microsoft products (I honestly don’t know what those products even are) over this?

I just don’t think they have anything to worry about. I personally think it’s good what they’re doing here, but I guess I’m too cynical to believe they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, and I don’t think the real reason is that they’re worried about bad publicity.

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

#379
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> This war that European Jews started in 1948 when they decided to attack and invade Palestine spans 2 continents, and more if you include the various attacks elsewhere. This is extremely ignorant. Jews have lived in Israel continuously for 3000 years. The modern Zionist migration, which started in the late 19th century (far from the first such movement for the Jews, and far from the last we've seen globally for all…

No, it isn't ignorant, it's history, and pointing to other historical examples of colonialism and imperialism doesn't make modern colonialist states legitimate. Romans lived in the UK over a thousand years ago, but that wouldn't give their descendants in modern Italians the right to occupy the UK, and us native Brits would be well within our right to fight back any invading and occupying force whether the invading and occupying force likes it or not. Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in relative peace in Palestine for almost a thousand years before the British put Israel there.

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

#380
post #97

The issue that people have with Israel's actions is the death of civilians, not the death of Hamas, the widely recognised terrorist. I believe it also to be true that the IDF do not want to kill civilians, and that their target is only Hamas. In which case, is it prudent to remove the IDF's ability to successfully target the correct people? Precise military intelligence is absolutely necessary for minimising civilian…

It is the IDF and Israel governments explicit goal, as stated by high up government officials and leaders, to eradicate all Palestians in Gaza. A cursory view into their own Hebrew media make this abundantly clear.

They are committing a genocide in both word and deed.

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