Microsoft Blocks Israeli Military Access To A Number Of Cloud And AI Services

JAKARTA Microsoft blocked Israeli military access to a number of cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) services. This was done after Israel was proven to be supervising Palestinians with the service.

Last month, The Guardian reported that Israel kept data in the form of 'one million calls per hour' in Azure. This footage comes from calls from Palestinians. After being reviewed, Microsoft finally found evidence supporting the report.

In an internal memo shared with employees on September 25, Microsoft Deputy Chairman and President Brad Smith stated that they had blocked Israeli military access. This decision has been submitted to the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD).

It was not explained in detail what services were blocked by Microsoft, but the focus was only on cloud and AI storage services. The purpose of this blocking is also quite clear, namely Microsoft does not want its services to be misused for civilian purposes.

Smith pun menyatakan bahwa pengawasan warga sipil secara massal merupakan bagian dari penyalahan platform. Lebih lanjut, Smith menegaskan bahwa Microsoft 'tidak menyediakan teknologi untuk memfasilitasi pengawasan massal terhadap warga sipil'.

This decision is said to have not affected the contract between Microsoft and the Israeli government. Smith also explained that this decision also did not affect Microsoft's duty to protect Israel's cybersecurity and other countries in the Middle East.

According to a number of reports, the Israeli military had transferred 8TB of data from Azure a few days after the initial report emerged. Reportedly, this large amount of data will be transferred to a cloud service belonging to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Apart from Amazon services that Israel may be using, the news of this blocking is a victory for activist group No Azure for apartheid. This is a group that opposes the cooperation between Microsoft and Israel.

The group said that, "(This) a significant and unprecedented victory." In fact, before reports of Azure's abuse circulated, they had carried out a campaign urging Microsoft to stop Israel's access to Azure services.

However, Microsoft's action to deactivate a small part of its services to the Israeli military is considered insufficient. One member, according to The Verge, stated that most of Microsoft and Israel's contract contents remained intact. Therefore, No Azure for Appartheid will still take action until their demands are met.