Microsoft blocks its cloud and AI services to IDF's Unit 8200, after reports of aiding in genocide
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Microsoft blocks its cloud and AI services to IDF's Unit 8200, after reports of aiding in genocide")
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators hold banners and signs as they protest outside the Microsoft Build conference at the Seattle Convention Center in Seattle, Washington on May 19, 2025 Photograph: (AFP)
Microsoft suspends Azure's cloud and advanced AI services to Israel’s Unit 8200 after reports revealed AI-powered mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
US tech giant Microsoft have reduced access to Microsoft's certain services like Azure to the IDF's intelligence unit, after reports of it being used as a tool to spy on the Palestinians.
“I want to let you know that Microsoft has ceased and disabled a set of services to a unit within the Israel Ministry of Defence (IMOD),” said Brad Smith, Vice Chairman and President of the company. This was in response to an investigation by The Guardian, +972 magazine, and Local call, which revealed that Israel's Unit 8200 have used Azure for storing data they obtained after spying on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Role of Microsoft in the Genocide
The investigation revealed that in 2021, following a meeting between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the Unit 8200’s leader, Yossi Sariel, an AI-powered surveillance system was created. Since 2022, the system has recorded ‘one million calls an hour’.
The process used a cloud computing platform of Azure to record, compile, playback, translate and analyse millions of phone calls, which contributed to and aided the airstrikes and other operations in the Gaza Strip.
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Consequences of the report
Following the report, Brad Smith, Vice Chairman and President of Microsoft, released an external investigation which supported the probes of the journalists.
“First, 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,” read a statement from the company.
“At no point has Microsoft accessed IMOD’s (Israeli Defence Ministry) customer content,” read the statement.
However, the services were stopped only for Israel's Unit 8200 and the specific services. It continued for other commercial products of Microsoft and other wings of IDF. This has drawn criticism from Palestinian activists, with protests like "No Azure for Apartheid," implying that Microsoft still aids in the military operations of Israel.
Just after the publication of the report, the IDF's Unit 8200 reportedly took off the large trove of data from Microsoft's server in the Netherlands, Ireland, and according to reports, it plans to use Amazon Web Services now.
