First Google, now Microsoft: Tech staff are in revolt over Gaza

When a group of employees raised a Palestinian flag outside Microsoft's headquarters and occupied a top executive's office, it marked an escalation of unrest brewing inside Silicon Valley's biggest companies over their work with the Israeli military.

- Katherine Blunt & Sebastian Herrera

While tech giants have long given employees latitude to engage in political speech at work, the latest wave of activism over the war in Gaza has put some workers at odds with their employers. On Wednesday, Microsoft said it had fired two employees that were part of the group that stormed its offices this week. Last year, Google fired dozens of workers after they staged similar sit-ins.

For months, employee discourse about Gaza has tested workplace policies at Microsoft and Alphabet unit Google. Content moderators of internal message boards have repeatedly deleted comments about the conflict, according to current and former employees and internal correspondence viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft's moderators have deleted questions and conversation threads related to the war in Gaza and the company's work with Israel, screenshots viewed by the Journal show. On a Microsoft-wide message board, one employee wrote about the impact of food shortages and attacks on people in Gaza. "How much more must we endure before we say 'enough?'" the person wrote.

A content moderator replied with a reminder to follow community guidelines outlining the company's rules for respectful conversation. "We are now closing this thread for comments," the moderator wrote.

On Tuesday, after his office was breached, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company is reviewing claims that its technologies had been used to target people in Gaza. The company earlier looked into claims its software was being used to harm people but said it found no evidence.

Smith also called the actions of protesters "not standard employee conduct" and said that the company is examining the actions of employee organizers, as well as reviewing its building security protocols. The two now-fired software engineers were arrested by police, along with a former Google employee and four former Microsoft staffers.