Microsoft has fired one of its employees who protested during the company's 50th anniversary event
The protester, Ibtihal Aboussad, interrupted a speech by Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s AI CEO.
Aboussad is reportedly part of a group called No Azure for Apartheid.
Microsoft has fired one of its employees who protested during the company’s 50th anniversary event. The protester, Ibtihal Aboussad, interrupted a speech by Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s AI CEO, and was later terminated for what the company described as “acts of misconduct.”
SurveyAccording to an internal email seen by The Verge, Microsoft said the protest involved “yelling and finger-pointing at the CEO before a live audience of thousands,” along with “hostile, unprovoked, and highly inappropriate accusations.”
“Earlier today, you interrupted a speech by Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman during the Company’s 50th anniversary event in Redmond, Seattle, by yelling and finger-pointing at the CEO before a live audience of thousands of attendees, and making hostile, unprovoked, and highly inappropriate accusations against the CEO, the Company and Microsoft generally,” the email to Ibtihal Aboussad stated. “While the CEO remained calm and attempted to de-escalate the matter, your conduct was so aggressive that you had to be escorted out of the room by security.”
Aboussad is reportedly part of a group called No Azure for Apartheid, which includes Microsoft workers pushing the company to end its contracts with the Israeli government. She was one of two employees who protested during the event. The second protester, Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former CEO Steve Ballmer, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella later on in the event
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During her protest, Aboussad called Suleyman a “war profiteer” and urged company to “stop using AI for genocide in our region.”
While Agrawal had already submitted her resignation two weeks before the protest, she was let go soon after the incident. Aboussad, on the other hand, was fired by Microsoft Canada.
“The company has concluded that your misconduct was designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event,” the email to Aboussad stated. “It is also concerning that you have not apologised to the company, and in fact you have shown no remorse for the effect that your actions have had and will have.”
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Ayushi Jain
Ayushi works as Chief Copy Editor at Digit, covering everything from breaking tech news to in-depth smartphone reviews. Prior to Digit, she was part of the editorial team at IANS. View Full Profile
