Microsoft headquarters go into lockdown after activists take over Brad Smith’s office

Protestors stormed Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters on Monday and made it into president Brad Smith’s office in Building 34, forcing a temporary lockdown. The “No Azure for Apartheid” group reportedly live-streamed their sit-in on Twitch, hoisting banners, chanting ‘Brad Smith, you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide!’ and posting a mock legal summons charging Smith with “crimes against humanity.”

According to The Verge, the protest included both active Microsoft workers and former employees who’ve been fired for previous activism. Monday’s escalation follows months of protests over Microsoft’s cloud contracts with Israel, including recent arrests at company headquarters.

TechCrunch has reached out to Microsoft for comment about the incident and will update the article if the company responds.

A recent Guardian investigation revealed Israel uses Microsoft’s services to store data from millions of calls each day made by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Today’s corporate takeover mirrors tactics from Google employees more than a year ago. In April 2024, nine Google workers staged coordinated protests across New York and California offices, with five occupying Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office for nine hours. They wrote demands on his whiteboard and wore “Googler against genocide” shirts.

The Google protesters targeted Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract with Amazon that provides Israel’s government and military with cloud computing and AI tools. The employees’ sit-ins and arrests were similarly live-streamed on Twitch; three days later, 28 employees involved in those protests were fired.