Civil Society & Human Rights Groups Condemn Microsoft’s Discriminatory Censorship on Palestine

7amleh and MPower Change call on Microsoft to stop censoring their workers’ speech. It has recently come to light that Microsoft implemented a change to its internal email system blocking messages with the word “Palestine”, “Gaza”, or “Genocide” in the subject line. Initial reporting suggests that no such blocker is in place for “Israel”, showing concerning signs of a discriminatory, anti-Palestinian bias. 

According to Microsoft workers, the company claims they are limiting "political speech" on internal emails. But the censorship is targeted, and currently the blocked terms include "Palestine," "Gaza," "apartheid," and "genocide,".

Meanwhile, phrases such as "Israel," "IDF," "abortion," "Ukraine," "Russia," "gun control," "North Korea," and other political terms are not being blocked, showing a clear discrimination in the ways Microsoft is actively censoring what is considered acceptable speech. 

A growing body of evidence connects Big Tech firms like Microsoft to ongoing violence and human rights violations in Gaza. This has sparked a wave of legitimate concern and criticism from tech workers urging their companies to end their complicity and be accountable for how tech is used in war. 

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights clearly outlines corporations’ obligation to avoid causing adverse human rights impacts through their business activities and relationships, and the workers’ concerns are directly aligned with legitimate calls for accountability. 

Rather than censoring and suppressing their workers’ speech, we call on Microsoft to respect their workers’ concerns and to take meaningful accountability measures to end any complicity in ongoing human rights violations.