Microsoft Fires Two After Executive Office Sit-In

Microsoft terminated two employees today after they joined a group that entered vice chair and president Brad Smith’s office at the company’s Building 34 and livestreamed a sit-in. The protesters demanded Microsoft cut ties with the Israeli government, citing concerns about how cloud services were being used in the region.

The two dismissed workers, software engineers Riki Fameli and Anna Hattle, were among seven people who breached the executive suite. Several arrests followed, including current and former Microsoft employees and other tech workers. Microsoft temporarily locked down the building during the incident.

An unnamed Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire the firings were the result of “serious breaches of company policies and our code of conduct.” Microsoft declined to provide an attributable statement to The Verge. The protest was organized by No Azure for Apartheid, a group of current and former Microsoft workers pressing the company to sever government contracts.

Hours after the arrests, Brad Smith held an impromptu press briefing from his office. He reiterated Microsoft’s commitment to human rights principles and noted the company has opened an investigation after The Guardian reported that Azure services may have been used for surveillance activities.

This incident follows weeks of escalating demonstrations on Microsoft’s campus, including a “Liberated Zone” encampment, red paint poured over signage, and previous arrests. Protesters have also started targeting executives’ homes and offices, widening the spotlight on corporate contracts and ethical uses of cloud technology.

Why this matters

The episode highlights three intersecting risks for cloud-era companies:

• Operational and reputational exposure when platform capabilities appear tied to contentious state uses.
• Workplace safety and policy enforcement challenges as employee activism escalates from demonstrations to building incursions.
• Legal and contractual scrutiny of cloud contracts and downstream uses, prompting audits and governance reviews.

What organizations should do now

For enterprise and cloud operators, the immediate priorities are straightforward: confirm the security of customer and government environments, accelerate targeted contractual and technical audits, and reinforce access controls with least-privilege principles. For leadership teams, prepare clear incident response and communications playbooks that account for both legal exposure and employee sentiment.

Tech companies must also balance enforcement with constructive employee engagement. Open channels for policy feedback, transparent reporting on investigations, and third-party reviews of contentious contracts can reduce escalation and restore trust.

This incident is a reminder that cloud infrastructure decisions live at the intersection of technology, policy, and ethics. Companies that treat governance as an afterthought will face operational disruptions, regulatory scrutiny, and internal unrest.

QuarkyByte’s approach is to turn episodes like this into concrete roadmaps: map technical telemetry to contractual obligations, prioritize fixes that reduce systemic risk, and design communication strategies that limit escalation. For organizations managing cloud platforms or complex vendor relationships, those actions matter more than ever.