The U.S. company Microsoft said on September 25 that it had halted some of its services to an agency in the Israeli Ministry of Defense.A survey published by British media earlier revealed that Israel used Microsoft services to massively monitor Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
On the 25th, the BBC quoted Microsoft President Brad Smith as saying that the Israeli Ministry of Defense used Microsoft's technology to conduct large-scale surveillance of civilians, which violated Microsoft's standard terms of service. The company then informed the Israeli Defense Ministry that it would "stop and disable" certain "subscriptions and their services," including the use of specific cloud storage and artificial intelligence services and technologies, with a focus on ensuring Microsoft's services are not used to mass surveillance of civilians.
"Microsoft's cooperation with the Israeli government has been controversial, and it has triggered workers' protests inside the company, and I know that many people are concerned about it," Smith wrote in an email to employees.
Smith stressed that the review is still ongoing, "I will share more information in the next few days or weeks, at the right time."
The Associated Press reported earlier this year, citing internal Microsoft data, that the Israeli military uses Microsoft's Azure cloud service platform to compile phone calls, text messages and other information collected through mass surveillance, and transcribe and translate this information. Subsequently, relevant departments cross-checked this intelligence with Israel's internal artificial intelligence system to determine the target of air strikes.
Microsoft admitted in May that it sold advanced artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli military during the Gaza conflict to assist in the search and rescue of Israeli detainees.
In August, an investigation conducted by the Guardian in collaboration with two Israeli online media outlets, +972 Magazine and "Local Call", revealed that a department of the Israeli Defense Ministry used Microsoft products to help develop a large-scale AI monitoring system that scanned, translated and analyzed millions of phone calls made by Palestinian civilians every day.