Microsoft employees are protesting currently against the company’s involvement with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after Google employees rebelled against the company’s association with the US Military Project- Maven.
According to a report, more than 100 employees posted a letter on the Microsoft’s internal message board protesting over the company’s work with the ICE which has come to light in the recent times for separating migrant parents from their infant children at the Mexican border.
“We believe that Microsoft must take an ethical stand, putting children and families above profits. Therefore, we ask that Microsoft cancel its contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately, including contracts with clients who support ICE. We also call Microsoft to draft, publicise and enforce a clear policy stating that neither Microsoft nor its contractors will work with clients who violate the international human right law,” the letter said pointing out towards a $19.4 million contract that the company has with ICE for processing data and artificial intelligence capabilities.
Microsoft came into the spotlight after an Azure blogpost by Microsoft General Manager Tom Keane dating back to January 24, 2018, resurfaced on the social media. The blog stated that the company was proud to provide ICE with deep learning and facial recognition technologies. The company later issued a statement specifying that it was not working with the ICE or US Customs and Border Protection on any projects related to separating children from their families at the border. “We are not aware of Azure or Azure services being used for this purpose,” Microsoft said.
However, Microsoft bosses are now saying that Microsoft’s work with the ICE has nothing to do with separating the immigrant families.
According to a note that was internally circulated by Vice President of Microsoft’s Azure cloud Platform, Jason Zander, company’s is helping ICE for moving from the legacy infrastructure to cloud-based Azure. “Our current engagement with ICE is focused on moving legacy infrastructure such as mail, calendar, messaging and document management to the cloud using Azure. This means we are not doing anything with AI, Cognitive Services, or facial recognition. I know this is a complicated issue. I hope having the facts helps,” Zander wrote in the note obtained by Gizmodo.
His words are being repeated by the company CEO Satya Nadella, who had written a post on LinkedIn. He wrote- “I want to be clear: Microsoft is not working with the U.S. government on any projects related to separating children from their families at the border” adding that, “We will always stand for immigration policies that preserve every person’s dignity and human rights. That means standing with every immigrant who works at Microsoft and standing for change in the inhumane treatment of children at the U.S. border today.”
Meanwhile, other tech CEOs also have responded to the Trump government’s policy of separating immigrant families from their children.
“As a father, a citizen and an immigrant myself, the stories coming from our border break my heart. Families are the backbone of society. A policy that pulls them apart rather than building them up is immoral and just plain wrong. #KeepFamiliesTogether,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi tweeted.
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