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If boycotting Israel, include Microsoft in your boycott

Microsoft Slammed For Investment In Israeli Facial Recognition ‘Spying On Palestinians’

http://web.archive.org/web/20231204142210/https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/08/01/microsoft-slammed-for-investing-in-israeli-facial-recognition-spying-on-palestinians/

Microsoft faces criticism for funding Israeli facial recognition company AnyVision, reportedly carrying out surveillance on Palestinians and working in Hong Kong and Russia.

Microsoft finances #AnyVision to produce facial recognition technology that the Israeli military uses against the Palestinian people.

So if you oppose Israel’s brutality then #Microsoft should be on your boycott list.

If you are undecided, these stories might help with your decision:

snipers target a red-cross medic for execution (2018) → https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/03/middleeast/razan-al-najjar-gaza-nurse-killed/index.html
Hind Rajab (6 year old; 2024) → https://www.guardian2zotagl6tmjucg3lrhxdk4dw3lhbqnkvvkywawy3oqfoprid.onion/world/2024/feb/10/im-so-scared-please-come-hind-rajab-six-found-dead-in-gaza-12-days-after-cry-for-help

For Hind Rajab and her mother, my boycott is on until I die.

2 comments

aniki

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Open source ftw.

soloActivist

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Yes but not so fast. Avoiding MS software purchases is the easy part. Microsoft is a surveillance advertiser, so not giving money to MS is only a fraction of the equation. MS profits from the data that feeds it. Boycotting MS requires withholding data from MS. Thus FOSS people are not off the hook. MS boycotters must also:

avoid MS Github (sadly, this is at the center of FOSS)
avoid MS LinkedIn
avoid Bing (and Bing sydicates like #DuckDuckGo)
avoid emailing Outlook recipients (indeed, because MS uses that data to obtain advertising revenue)

So, it’s obviously not as simple as running free software.

Many government offices use MS for their email system. So as a committed boycotter, if I need to contact a gov office I print out hardcopy letters and snail mail them the old fashioned way to stay off snooping MS email servers.