An employee also just bypassed email filters to protest Microsofts support of war crimes.
Art rock legend Brian Eno has called on Microsoft to sever its ties with the government of Israel, saying the company’s provision of cloud and AI services to Israel’s Ministry of Defense “support a regime that is engaged in actions described by leading legal scholars and human rights organizations, the United Nations experts, and increasing numbers of governments from around the world, as genocidal.”
Eno’s connection with Microsoft goes back 30 years—he composed the famous boot-up jingle for Windows 95 that was recently inducted into the National Recording Registry at the US Library of Congress.
“I gladly took on the project as a creative challenge and enjoyed the interaction with my contacts at the company,” Eno wrote in an open letter posted to Instagram (via Stereogum). “I never would have believed that the same company could one day be implicated in the machinery of oppression and war.”
Regardless, Eno clearly isn’t interested in Microsoft’s protestations of innocence: “Selling and facilitating advanced AI and cloud services to a government engaged in systematic ethnic cleansing is not ‘business as usual’. It is complicity. If you knowingly build systems that can enable war crimes, you inevitably become complicit in those crimes.”
“I never would have believed that the same company could one day be implicated in the machinery of oppression and war.”
While it’s very chivalrous of Eno to do so, clearly the same people are no longer running the company. The new management is probably going “Brian who?” with sincerity in the question.
30 years is a long time in corporate culture. Eno isn’t a corporate guy so maybe he really just doesn’t understand how fast things can change with changing leadership.
He’s not saying this because he has influence with Microsoft directly. He’s doing it because he’s Brian Eno and he will be heard, and because of the respect he’s earned amongst his peers, he will be heard by people with even louder voices. So Microsoft and other companies and consumers will hear. Hopefully with enough acts like this, companies are shamed enough that it affects their bottom lines enough that they stop supporting genocide.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say most people under 35 have no idea who he is. Hell, unless they’re re a music aficionado, they probably don’t know who he is, no matter the age.
He was that one guy who made that one track, right?
(I’m 45 and know damn well who he is.)
Also 45, I have heard the name, but I don’t know who he is.
God damn, shits gotten serious now if he’s involved. I guess Microsoft got no other option but to listen.
I’ve been an Eno fan my entire life, but I had no idea that he invented that sound. I wonder if he gets a royalty for every sale?
It reminds me of the “DUN DUN” sound from Law & Order, composed by Mike Post. I read that he’s collected over $20 million in royalties from that sound alone.
One doesn’t really “invent” sounds so much as compose them. Inventing would be more like creating the theremin.
As to the iconic Law & Order sound, damn, that’s a pretty sweet gig. Do something once and ride it for decades.
When the guy who composed the song “Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weenie, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” died, I read that he called the song a “non-stop money making machine.”
When he died he called it…? I assume before he died?
There’s a public petition - separate from the employee petition
Honestly, I struggle to draw a connection between world conflict and non-military technology like Windows or cell phones or whatever.
Is every single Israeli resident complicit in what their government is doing? None of them should be allowed to use Windows? What about Israelis outside of Israel? What about people who support Israel? What about (gasp) Jews? How do you even enforce any of this without massive overreach by the companies?
Call on Microsoft or Apple all you want, ultimately I don’t think a company should ban sales to customers on the argument that those customers might not have morals aligned to the company. Not that it’s even possible, with world supply chains being what they are.
Microsoft continues to provide the Israeli military with Azure cloud and AI services that are crucial in empowering and accelerating Israel’s genocidal efforts targeting Palestinians.
https://www.972mag.com/cloud-israeli-army-gaza-amazon-google-microsoft/
‘Order from Amazon’: How tech giants are storing mass data for Israel’s war
The Israeli army is using Amazon’s cloud service to store surveillance information on Gaza’s population, while procuring further AI tools from Google and Microsoft for military purposes, an investigation reveals.
Is every single Israeli resident complicit in what their government is doing? None of them should be allowed to use Windows?
This is not about Israeli citizens using Windows. This is about Microsoft’s contracts with the Israeli military and government.
Is he calling for Hamas to surrender?
