WASHINGTON, May 22, 2025 (WAFA) – Microsoft has banned the words “Palestine,” “Gaza,” and “genocide” from being sent to recipients inside and outside the US computer giant, according to the Verge website.

The website reported that Microsoft employees have discovered that any emails they send with the terms “Palestine” or “Gaza” are getting temporarily blocked from being sent to recipients inside and outside the company.

It added that the No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) protest group reports that “dozens of Microsoft workers” have been unable to send emails with the words “Palestine,” “Gaza,” and “Genocide” in email subject lines or in the body of a message.

It reported NOAA organizer Hossam Nasr saying: “NOAA believes this is an attempt by Microsoft to silence worker free speech and is a censorship enacted by Microsoft leadership to discriminate against Palestinian workers and their allies.”

Microsoft claimed that it has implemented some form of email changes to reduce “politically focused emails” inside the company.

The block was revealed by NOAA, a group of pro-Palestinian Microsoft workers, who say the company quietly activated the filter on its Exchange servers shortly after a protest at Microsoft Build 2025. Microsoft is facing internal backlash over its provision of cloud services and AI tools to the Israeli occupation forces.

On Tuesday, activists, including a former Google employee and members of the "No Tech for Apartheid" movement, interrupted Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the opening of this year's Microsoft Build Conference. They were protesting Microsoft’s involvement in supplying technology, including AI systems, for supporting Israel’s ongoing genocidal aggression on Gaza, which resulted in the killing of 53,762 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 122,197 others.

K.F.