Xinhua News Agency, San Francisco, September 25 (Reporter Wu Xiaoling) Microsoft Corporation of the United States announced on the 25th that it has decided to ban an agency of the Israeli Ministry of Defense from using Microsoft's cloud computing platform and artificial intelligence services to conduct large-scale surveillance of Palestinian civilians.

Microsoft President Brad Smith said on the company¡¯s blog that Microsoft had informed the Israeli Defense Ministry of its decision to halt and disable certain cloud storage and AI services and communicated with the Israeli Defense Ministry about the measures taken to ensure the company¡¯s services were not used for mass surveillance of civilians.

The Guardian on August 6 that the Israeli military used Microsoft's cloud computing platform Azure to store data from mass surveillance of calls received from Palestinian civilians.

Smith said in a blog post that evidence has been found to support the Guardian¡¯s report, ¡°including information about the Defense Department¡¯s use of Azure¡¯s storage capacity in the Netherlands and the use of artificial intelligence services,¡± the investigation is still ongoing.