Microsoft cuts off Cloud, AI services to Israeli military’s cyber unit
Microsoft has cut off Cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) services provided to an Israeli military’s cyber unit following an internal investigation into alleged misuse tied to the surveillance of Palestinians
San Francisco: Microsoft has cut off Cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) services provided to an Israeli military’s cyber unit following an internal investigation into alleged misuse tied to the surveillance of Palestinians.
Microsoft has been accused of being complicit in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank by rights bodies and activists, including the UN experts.
Unhappy by Microsoft's continued tech support to the Israeli Occupation Forces (IDF), its employees on various occasions had protested, and some have even resigned.
On its part, the tech giant sacked some of its employees for protesting against Israel. The tech giant has however, it appears, taken some steps and has decided to suspend its Cloud and AI services to Unit 8200 of the Israeli military’s cyber unit.
"Microsoft tech is not for mass surveillance"
Microsoft informed Israeli officials late last week that Unit 8200, the military’s elite spy agency, had breached the company’s terms of service by storing the vast trove of surveillance data within its Azure cloud platform”, London based The Guardian has reported citing its sources.
Microsoft’s Vice-Chair and President, Brad Smith, on Thursday September 25, 2025 informed its staff of the decision in an email seen by The Guardian, stating that the company had “ceased and disabled a set of services to a unit within the Israel Security Ministry”, which included cloud storage and AI services.
“We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians. We have applied this principle in every country around the world, and we have insisted on it repeatedly for more than two decades," Smith emphasized in his e-mail.
The decision to terminate Unit 8200’s access to Microsoft Cloud and AI services followed The Guardian-Local Call-+972 Magazine joint investigation published last month, which revealed that the unit was utilizing the Azure platform to store and process a trove of Palestinian communications as a component of a mass surveillance programme.
According to sources, the project originated after a meeting in 2021 that involved Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, and the then-commander of the unit, Yossi Sariel.
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