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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

#391

Post by Forgeties79 »

sugarpimpdorsey wrote: post #386
Forgeties79 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every protest we praise in history broke the law at some point. “Promote company-hating propaganda” is an interesting way to describe what happened.

Building a website on internal Microsoft infra that ledes with a picture of "Azure Kills Kids" is beyond the pale.

That’s a pretty low bar for “beyond the pale.” Company PR isn’t some sacred thing and these people paid a hefty price for their protest. They should be praised for their bravery even if you disagree with their message.

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

#392

Post by BrenBarn »

platevoltage wrote: post #360
t1amat wrote: 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.

Literally nothing to do with 1A

That's because 1A only has to do with a limited subset of the actual concept of freedom of speech.

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

#393

Post by thrownawayohman »

dotancohen wrote: post #176
RajT88 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other commenters are right, but I'll point out another fallacy you're pushing here. The current situation is like somebody commits a murder. Then the community rounds up a posse and goes out to kill the murderer. Then kill the murder's family, their neighbors, the residents of the next neighborhood over, raze the neighborhoods and then take all the land for themselves. Justice means penalizing the guilty parties, not…

But isn't that what Hamas did? Broke into homes and burned babies to death? Beheaded people? Pulled fetuses from pregnant women? Shoot up clinics and murder the entire staff and patients?

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

#394

Post by ahf8Aithaex7Nai »

hashim wrote: post #389
BrenBarn wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that if you're very very bad, you can do a good thing and still be very bad.

What other reasons are Microsoft very very bad? Genuinely curious about what your definition of "very, very bad" is and whether it aligns with mine.

Search for "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish".

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

#395

Post by basilgohar »

skinkestek wrote: post #381
basilgohar wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Qatar and Yemen [0]. [0] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/10/maps-israel-has-att...

"Palestine" have declared themselves to be at war with Israel. Syria is at war with Israel since decades. Lebanon has been shooting rockets at Israel and preparing ground attacks. Yemen (or rather the Houtis) keep firing at Israel. Are these the examples you want to show about Israel being bad? Edit: Tunisia hasn't been attacked. The influencer convoy was attacked by their own flare and media claimed ot was a drone u…

Palestine has been illegally occupied by Israel since its inception. It is not AT WAR. It is resisting occupation.

Israel has been the single most belligerent nation in the middle east, attacking and antagonizing their own so-called allies for its entire existence.

Israel is responsible for attacking the British (King David Hotel), the US (USS Liberty), all of its neighbors, and even others more distant (Tunisia). It in their nature to antagonize their neighbors because they WANT conflict. They occupy lands that once belonged to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. They aspire to occupy far greater regions. They are not interested in peace, only on expanding their borders. They continue to build settlements on what little land people still call Palestine. They are committing a recognized genocide in Gaza. Resisting and stopping this is not just a right, but a mandatory action according to the genocide convention.

If not for the US support of Israel, it could never act with such impunity.

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

#396

Post by BrenBarn »

collinmcnulty wrote: post #218
bhouston wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 wil…

I agree. If we want our pressure campaigns to be successful, we need to reward companies that respond to them.

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.

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

#397

Post by dotancohen »

basilgohar wrote: post #380
bArray wrote: 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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Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#398

Post by hashim »

squigz wrote: post #305
colpabar wrote: post #264

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.

Not just some people - a lot of people, and an increasing amount of people in the last year or so, including whole countries like Ireland, Spain and Slovenia. See the BDS movement/website/Facebook pages. As a lifelong Windows user I've been seriously considering moving to a Linux distro for my next desktop. I'll need to dig into the news some more, but this decision more than likely means I can stick with Windows.

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

#399

Post by JumpCrisscross »

meowface wrote: post #336
Aarostotle wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think OP’s point is Israel’s legitimate surveillance needs have risen alongside their credibility crashing. This isn’t a simply reduced problem unless one has a horse in the race.
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