Microsoft blocking internal emails containing words like “Palestine,” “Gaza,” or “genocide”

Word has emerged from within Microsoft that the company has started blocking internal employee emails containing keywords such as “Palestine,” “Gaza,” or “genocide.” This move, which reportedly involves an automated filter on the company’s internal Exchange servers, prevents emails with these terms from reaching their intended recipients. The change was first detected on Wednesday, according to No Azure for Apartheid, a group of pro-Palestine Microsoft employees.

This development follows a series of disruptions at Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference by activists protesting the company’s ties with the Israeli military and government. Microsoft has acknowledged the email changes. Frank Shaw, a company spokesperson, told The Verge that the measures were aimed at reducing “politically focused emails” sent to large numbers of employees who haven’t opted into such discussions, stating, “We have an established forum for employees who have opted in to political issues.”

However, the No Azure for Apartheid group views the email blocking differently. Organizers from the group told The Verge they believe this is “an attempt by Microsoft to silence worker free speech and is a censorship enacted by Microsoft leadership to discriminate against Palestinian workers and their allies.” They also noted that terms like “Israel” or alternative spellings like “P4lestine” do not appear to trigger the same block.

The backdrop to these email restrictions is significant internal dissent within Microsoft concerning its contracts providing cloud services, including Azure, and other technologies to the Israeli military, especially amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Just last week, as reported by Drop Site News, Microsoft released an internal investigation claiming its operations did not cause harm to civilians in Gaza. This was ahead of the Build conference, which itself saw several protests.

On Monday, during CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote, a Microsoft employee named Joe Lopez, an engineer who worked on Azure, shouted, “How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?” before being removed by security, The Guardian reported. Lopez was subsequently fired. Another disruption occurred on Tuesday when a worker interrupted Jay Parikh, head of CoreAI, shouting, “My people are suffering! Cut ties with Israel!”

These protests highlight ongoing employee concerns. +972 Magazine, previously reported on internal documents revealing Microsoft’s active pursuit of contracts with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, offering significant discounts on cloud and AI services. According to these documents, the Israeli military became one of Microsoft’s top global customers shortly after the October 7 attacks. While Microsoft didn’t dispute the documents’ authenticity, it maintains its internal review found no evidence of its technologies being used to harm people. The No Azure for Apartheid group continues to challenge this conclusion, asserting that company leadership is denying the reality of how its technology is being utilized.