Overview
- Senior engineer Patrick Fort interrupted Judson Althoff’s keynote at Moscone West and publicly resigned, saying his work on Azure enabled what he called genocide in Gaza.
- Demonstrations tied to the conference were staged in San Francisco, at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters, and at its Dublin hub by groups including No Azure for Apartheid and Your Tech Their Deaths.
- Protesters urged Microsoft to cut services or divest from Israel, arguing the company’s cloud and AI tools function as critical infrastructure for military operations.
- Microsoft said appropriate teams were working to minimize disruptions and affirmed support for peaceful assembly while asking that business not be disrupted.
- Organizers reported security at the San Francisco venue tried to lock down entrances and blasted music to drown out chants as protesters marched, leafleted, chalked messages, and deployed an ad truck.