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Microsoft has fired four employees in response to a protest over the company’s alleged ties to Israel, with two more dismissed after a break-in at President and Vice-Chair Brad Smith’s office at the company’s Redmond headquarters in Washington state, Anadolu reports.
“Two additional employees were terminated due to serious violations of established company policies and our code of conduct,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CBS News on Thursday. The company had announced the initial two firings in relation to the event on Wednesday.
Now totaling four, the firings followed a demonstration on Tuesday by seven current and former employees at the company’s Redmond headquarters in Washington state. The activists, affiliated with the group No Azure for Apartheid, entered Smith’s office to demand that Microsoft end what they described as direct and indirect support for Israel in its war on Gaza.
The No Azure for Apartheid group identified the dismissed employees on Instagram as Riki Fameli and Anna Hattle, following their arrest by police on Tuesday.
LOL - what did they think would happen?
If they just resigned in protest then there would be very little media attention. Arguably they've achieved what they set out to do
They thought they were going to risk their carreer to protest against a company committing genocide and cause it massive amounts of negative media attention in the process.
Which is exactly what they did.
So "nothing effectual". Got it.
Effective protesting is when internet users set their profile picture to Clippy en masse, that ought to scare Microsoft and their contemporaries!
Get a grip, lib.
Clippy is FUNNY though.
So was Microsoft having to cancel their media event to deal with a break in. I guess humor really is subjective
Yeah, taking action that at a minimum gets uou fired from a good paying job in this economy is Hi-larious!
Actually reminds me of some lines from a closing of a comedy act on this very topic: https://youtu.be/JdJwzSsLWZM
Instead of talking about all the things you loose for standing up for the right thing, talk about all the things you gain.
Public sentiment is something which shifts over time with many different small actions. When it reaches a tipping point is when changes start to happen.
AI augmented entertainment media can and does guide public sentiment in a closed feedback loop and it's only going to get better and better at it.
Now matter how much we rock the boat, it will efficiently dampen the waves, it will be like trying to rock a boat sunken into molasses
False. Companies and fairs absolutely despite protesters ruining their mood. It makes them very uncomfortable to hold speeches without being interrupted. Nadella avoided speeches for a long time because of fears people would interrupt him.
A large arms fair in The Netherlands recently banned Israeli stands from attending because they didn't want to deal with the massive amount of protesters ruining their convention again.
I mean, sure you can make a scene and ruin an event, maybe even turn the whole crowd to your side but what I'm a talking about in at the large social scale, we're all mostly ballasted between the endless distraction and the demands of work and life on our attention. Now add into this mix something analyzing sentiment , tweaking relatively small things in the media landscape and dissipating anything that might become a coherent, organized, aligned movement.
I feel like we're in some kind of quicksand or molasses, oh no, it might be "nothingeverhappenism"
Things have been happening. The media has faced so much pushback that they have been forced to partially repeat on Israeli crimes to save face. Which in turn turned all the MSM boomers against Israel too.
But most damning of all is the West choosing to lose its entire moral credibility for Israel. Doing nothing actually comes with a very heavy price which Israel is not paying. Europe and the US are.
No protest action appears effective in a complete vacuum. This is one brave action among hundreds and perhaps thousands which can collectively make a difference.