Microsoft cuts cloud services to Israeli military unit over Palestinian mass surveillance; President Brad Smith says, 'found evidence that….'

Microsoft has cut off cloud computing and AI services to an Israeli military intelligence unit after an investigation revealed the technology was being used for mass surveillance of Palestinian civilians. The tech giant made the decision following a Guardian investigation that exposed how Israel's Unit 8200 stored millions of intercepted Palestinian phone calls on Microsoft's Azure platform.Brad Smith, Microsoft's president and vice chair, announced the termination in an internal memo to employees, stating the company found "evidence that supports elements of The Guardian's reporting." The blocked services include cloud storage and AI technologies that Unit 8200 had used to collect and analyze up to "a million calls an hour" from Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.An Israeli security official downplayed the impact, telling CNN there is "no damage to the operational capabilities of the IDF." Neither the Israel Defense Forces nor the Ministry of Defense responded to requests for comment about the service termination.The No Azure for Apartheid group, which includes of Microsoft employees, had been pressured Microsoft for over a year through protests and demonstrations, called the decision a significant win. "Today's news is a significant and unprecedented win for the campaign and our organizing," said Hossam Nasr, an organizer with the group, noting Microsoft became "the first US tech company to stop the sale of some technologies to the Israeli military since the start of the genocide in Gaza."However, the activist group said the action doesn't go far enough, as Microsoft only disabled services to a single unit while "the vast majority of Microsoft's contract with the Israeli military remains intact." The group vowed to continue organizing until all their demands are met.The company said it applies its anti-surveillance principles globally and has maintained this stance for over two decades, with Smith noting that customer privacy commitments prevented Microsoft from accessing the surveillance data directly during its investigation.Intelligence sources told the Guardian that Unit 8200 quickly moved the massive data trove out of Microsoft's Dutch servers within days of the original investigation's publication in August. The unit reportedly plans to transfer the surveillance data to Amazon Web Services, though Amazon has not responded to requests for comment.Smith emphasized that Microsoft "does not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians" and noted the decision doesn't affect the company's broader relationship with Israel, including cybersecurity work. However, the termination raises questions about Israel's policy of storing sensitive military intelligence on foreign-owned cloud platforms.