Microsoft fires employee protestor who called AI boss a ‘war profiteer’

Cancelled Xbox game pass and installing PopOS. Fuck Microsoft

The penguin calls, and the good folks answer.
- I've been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty
Have you checked out the gaming for Linux communities on Lemmy?
- Got any recommendations?
  Edit, I meant to say got, not god 🤣
???
I've never had an xbox before, so pardon my ignorance. But you can install linux OS's on xbox?
- You can get game pass for PC so, probably that way around
- No Linux on Xbox, no
based
Gotta draw the line somewhere I guess? Or is this just to make sure a Linux comment makes it into a thread about Microsoft?
I do not see how PopOS would replace Xbox game pass.
- With steam it will
...yo yall are late to the party, been running Nobara for 3 years now on my G14, rocking the Steam Deck, only Windows machine I have is for work and believe me that thing is host file locked down and stripped.
- Congratulations ig

the email to Aboussad reads. “It is also concerning that you have not apologized to the company, and in fact you have shown no remorse for the effect that your actions have had and will have.”

Obviously there were going to fire these employees, especially the one who gave notice then did this.

But why the fuck would anyone be like “yOu DiDn’T eVeN aPoLoGiZe To ThE cOmPaNy”? That’s the stupidest god damn thing I’ve heard since “Liberation Day”

What about "you haven't even thanked us!" to Zelensky?
- Same energy.
Apologized? Did they berate her for not "wearing a suit" too?
That email was almost certainly written by lawyers with the intention of supporting MS in court, should it come down to that.
- Bingo. Lots of stupid things at this level boil down to legal protection. You'll see it everywhere once you learn and look.
- that makes sense. i hate the fact that such a blatant play at covering your bases could hold up in any court. no matter the legal fineprint, it takes two functioning braincells to realise what's going on here
Hey, when's the last time you showed remorse to your multi-trillion market cap employer? Next you're gonna tell me something really outrageous like you didn't even swear an oath of fealty to them.
But why the fuck would anyone be like “yOu DiDn’T eVeN aPoLoGiZe To ThE cOmPaNy”?
Frame the debate. MS doesn't have to justify their profiteering if they can talk about the employee. The attention span of the public is limited.
C-suits don't live in the same world as the rest of us. Simple as that.
Have you said thank you to us even once?!
Have you even said Thank You?!?
Because law. At every opportunity, make it seem like the employees were not blowing the whistle, but purposefully harming the company.

Is anyone surprised? Maybe the surprising part is that she's still alive and only got fired.

Don't worry, she's probably getting deported/disappeared soon.
- I am pretty sure ICE and DHS are enroute to arrest her and deport her to El Salvador. Fucking gestappo c**ts. This is exactly what Rashida Tlaib, Jill Stein and Kshama Sawant wanted.

Microsoft has policy that prevents it from retaliatory actions against human rights violations. Court should rule Microsoft violated its own policies...

prevents it from retaliatory actions against human rights violations
They can't retaliate if someone violates human rights?
- They're referencing what the second protester (Vaniya Agrawal) mentioned in her email:
  Know that Microsoft’s human rights statement prohibits retaliation against anyone who raises a human rights-related concern: Human rights statement | Microsoft CSR
  The Microsoft Global Human Rights Statement has a "Foundational principles" section that says:
  Our commitment to human rights defenders: Our commitment to respecting and advancing human rights includes respect and support for the work of human rights defenders around the world. Human rights defenders are people who, individually or with others, engage in activities and advocacy that contribute to the protection of human rights and the rule of law, good governance, tolerance, and diversity and inclusion. Human rights defenders face persistent physical, social, economic, and psychological threats. Microsoft does not tolerate threats, intimidation, retaliation, physical, legal or cyber-attacks against human rights defenders. This commitment extends to all human rights defenders, including those working on issues related to Microsoft and those exercising their rights of freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, including to challenge or protest aspects of our own business.
  Microsoft is clearly declining to fulfill its commitment as it is written in its statement.

IBM had a role in the holocaust. Those numbers tattooed on everyone in the concentration camp? Those were IBM ID numbers for the punch cards.

If IBM staff protested about their role, it’s been lost to history. But it’s repeating today with Gaza and the staff who speak out are being demonized. Israel’s Lavender AI is being used to kill civilians. History will prove this woman and the other employees right in the end.

I still don’t think this “Lavender AI” actually exists, I think that was another scapegoat to blame their deliberate targeting of civilians on.
- Why not both?
  A.I. Mysticism as Responsibility-Evasion PR Tactic
- Israel has access to WhatsApp metadata and uses it to target people based on a poorly trained Israeli AI which calls everything Hamas. This is a scapegoat because it allows them to blame the machine for killing people at random.
- "Another fals positive? Woops! Whatever shall we do?"
Oh shit it's true. I tought punch cards came later but its 19th century(1800s) tech.
Depends who controls the narrative and how it plays out.
Is Lavender AI made by Microsoft or uses Microsoft technology?
- The IDF uses plenty of Microsoft technology including Azure. The details of Lavender are classified.

The fact that they're asking her to apologize is Just ass backwards.

They should apologize, and look into the issue, and possibly, stop, war profiting.

That's okay. They're going to lose a lot of Windows users, forcing them to upgrade Perfectly good computers.

i agree with what you're saying from an ethical standpoint. i think she's right to protest.
but it's not "an issue", it's a huge fucking client of theirs. from a business standpoint its a huge ask to fire a whole military as a customer.
- Surely there's an option between "drop major client" and "punish the person pointing out problems"
- "We cant stop selling to war criminals. They are among our biggest customers."
  Sounds more like a company that needs to be dismantled and have their leadership face prison sentences. Given the size of Microsoft they could take the hit economically w.o. much hassle. They dont have to be evil. They want to be evil. And we need to punish them for it by boycotting their shit as much as possible.
- Can't help but think of this book wrt your comment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
I wish that were the case. But I doubt most people will ditch Windows. They’ll just pony up for a new computer. They’ll certainly lose some users. But Windows will still remain as top dog, most likely. And I doubt that’ll ever change so long as traditional desktop computers and laptops still exist.
- Windows isn't the issue here. The war profiteering is coming from the AI and cloud divisions
I'm surprised they didn't call her an antisemite.

I would have been surprised if they hadn’t fired her. Good on those two for causing a ruckus for a cause they believe in though. Nonviolent one too, well done.

They were probably going to quit over personal morality anyway, so good for them for using their exit for positive. At least they can leave with their self-respect and dignity intact, and the respect of their co-workers and the world. Somewhere there is a moral employer who will appreciate them.

Exactly what a war profiteer would do.

the best thing i did was spend last month deleting the partitions in my desktop and laptop and installing mint.

I’ve been on Arch for a little while now, and Kubuntu before that. After Valve launched Proton on Steam, I found myself almost never booting into Windows. Once I ran out of disk space, it was an easy decision to completely purge Windows from my machine. Haven’t looked back in years.
Fuck Microsoft for trying to control my computer. Finally nice not having it reinstall Candy Crush after every update. And none of that copilot or online account bullshit.
- That’s such a nice thing about Linux and FOSS in general. The issues you run into are different than what you may be used to with Windows, but at least the system and its developers aren’t working against you.
Mint is the best flavor of linux. I recommend it.
- I tried a variety of distros when I made the switch 9 or 10 years ago, Mint is by far my favorite. I've been running it continuously for at least the last 8 years.
- I'm actually allergic to mint. Can anyone suggest a version of Linux that doesn't have any mint in it.
- Heh, flavour
  (I like Fedora, but it obviously doesnt taste as good)
- I love my Pop OS
Heck yeah. Once in installed Mint on my PC at home, it was only a matter of weeks before I double checked my backed up files and nuked my windows partition.
I still have the windows partition at work that I never use, and I have heard some bad stories about machines getting wiped when IT upgrades people to win11, so it might just have a little accident in its sleep.

"I'm not interested in arguing" -someone who knows they're in the wrong, but still holds the power

Genocide Profiteer not War Profiteer

Fuck you Microsoft, if I wasn't already done with you for completely enshittifying your operating system, I would DEFINITELY be done with you for this.

Fuck off and continue to become a Kodak or Yahoo or other still existing washout company that totally lost the plot.

What happened to Kodak?
- Kodak went from being a major player in the photography industry to being completely blindsided by digital photography.

It is also concerning that you have not apologized to the company, and in fact you have shown no remorse for the effect that your actions have had and will have.

the fucking audacity. i mean, we all knew how it would end, but talk about 5d reverse psychology mindgames

you have not apologized to the company
Writing this should be grounds for a mandatory psych ward commitment

Ah, yes, nothing quite like retaliating against someone who says you did a bad thing. Sure showed them!

Microsoft has recently been added to the BDS list. Do not forget to give their apps a review.

Only trouble is Microsoft clearly doesn't care about negative reviews of their applications, because they've been receiving negative reviews for years now.
It's not like you can even avoid using their products, personally you can install Linux but you're probably going to still have to use a Windows device at work, and business is where they make most of their profit anyway.
- It's mildly entertaining at times to scroll through the reviews of the HEIF Image Extension in the Microsoft Store. Microsoft doesn't care one bit how bad they are.
- Yeah, work is where they get you. I’m fortunate to be able to use Linux at work too, but the company is still paying for my M365 account which I use in a browser for meetings and communication.
- They still have presence in for example the Play store. A review can cost little time to place, yet it can affect a lot. Though avoid mentioning certain words censored by the play store.

There is no such thing as "free speech" under capitalism.

sounds like you don’t know what free speech is
- It doesn't seem they are using free speech in the same sense as the American first amendment (they may not be from the USA). But i would argue that if companies want to play politics, run countries, and be that integrated in people's lives then free speech as a concept should extend to companies.
- Yeah, about not being sent to a gulag for criticising the goberment
- Shhhhh... Get out of here with your nuance. Let them screech about the bad private company violating the First Amendment.
  It makes the monkeys feel better.
  Edit:

As enraging as this whole story is, I don't think there's any coming back from 'you're a war profiteer'

Yeah, I assume the now-former employee acted with full expectation of losing her job over this. She succeeded at bringing attention to something many people (myself included) hadn't heard about before, so she at least accomplished that much.

Linux isn't perfect but I don't have to put up with that kind of bullshit from the makers of my OS. Glad I switched long ago and never looked back (except for the Windows laptop I keep around for games)

Just out of curiosity, what games do you need a windows machine to play that proton can't make work on Linux?
- A lot of games I want to play with mods, the authors only release Windows installers. A great example is Battletech, the HBS remake. There's a "BTA advanced" mod I like to run and it takes a lot of screwing around to get it to work properly in Linux, but it's a few clicks on Windows. I will agree Proton has come a LONG way and some titles are perfect, but I get so little gaming time that when I sit down, I don't want to fucking around with swapping various Glorious Eggroll versions of Wine, or wondering which version of .net I need to get the game to run under Linux. On Windows it "just works".
  I do have a few titles I play on Linux, but I keep that laptop around just for gaming because I don't want to mess around. Anecdotally I would say 90% of my games work absolutely perfectly with Proton and it's mostly mods that screw up the experience.
- For me, its Battlefield. Most of them no longer work on Linux due to EA Anticheat
- One of my frustrations is, if I want to try some dozen games on Itch.io, they all come down as EXEs and it's not clear how I could quickly set them up for Proton. I understand the 20-clicks method of setting up one game off of Steam, and Lutris helps with well-known launchers like Ubi Connect. But for independent authors, needing to do setup for every EXE is a heavy dealbreaker.
- VR is still 99% windows right now, and if people dont appreciate the value of an affordable in-home holodeck after all this time i dont know what to say anymore
Biggest turn off for Linux is all the insufferable Linux bros on Lemmy that make me want to avoid anything Linux. I instinctively roll my eyes when I hear the name alone now
- I think everyone goes through a zealot period where they have discovered it and want the whole world to get on board. Now the setup works great for me and I do not care who else in the world uses it. My limited exposure to Windows 11 is infuriating and I'm eternally grateful to open source devs that I have a relaxing and functional Linux environment.

I am not worried about the firing part. This lady and her friends must have been added to the DHS list. They are going to deport her if she is on any visa or PR.

We have been deporting citizens for years.
https://immigrationimpact.com/2021/07/30/ice-deport-us-citizens/
- That was by mistake. This lady will be deported with intent to the infamous El Salvador prison.
- And it's still bad.

"We might not be a good fit."

Well, what did they expect?

They probably expected their employer not to participate in genocide.
What a dummy, right?!?! \s
It was about sending a message.

Not surprising, also seems like lawsuit material.

In terms of Microsoft suing her?
I guess it would depend on her contract, as Microsoft do profit from war so I would doubt a libel type case would get far.
- Other way around.

He's not wrong, but 'bringing your true self to work' is something companies like to say but they don't actually believe.

Of course they did

I'm confused.
I bet.
She didn't know that to start. She learned and she took action. I think the Verge had another article on her that described how she was initially excited to work for them and then realized that the circumstance.
- Yeah she was working on AI auto-transcription for audio thinking 'this will help people sort audio! Yay' and found out it's 'it'll help them sort audio of Palestinian phone calls so we can forward locations to the Israelis for bombings! No!' Like how dynamite was supposed to be for construction and then it got turned into bombs.
  How would you even screen tech work to make sure you're not contributing to genocides by applying? Only apply to companies that explicitly say 'Free Palestine' on their profiles? Do they even exist in the USA? Not to mention she familiarized herself with the policy supporting human rights concerns before sending that message. The one that in a sane world would have prevented any of this from even happening (Microsoft's involvement anyway).
It's possible to not realize you're complicit or not realize the depth of it.
When this happens like it did, you do briefly become someone who is getting blood money. She took this chance to interfere with their event.
I'm confused.
Yes - you are confused.