Earlier this month we covered how the number of Microsoft employees protesting the US Army contract with the company offering up HoloLens technology to better our troops. Many are currently protesting the 479 million dollar deal, saying that they didn’t sign up to create “lethal” instruments and now the CE of Microsoft is responding.
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“We made a principled decision that we’re not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to CNN Business at Mobile World Congress.
Nadella also added that they’ve been “very transparent” about the process of the signed deal and the terms of the technology’s use. In case you missed it, the deal was negotiated back in November, but the below “HoloLens for Good, not War” letter was sent up to CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith explaining exactly why these employees are resisting the advancement of this deal.
On behalf of workers at Microsoft, we’re releasing an open letter to Brad Smith and Satya Nadella, demanding for the cancelation of the IVAS contract with a call for stricter ethical guidelines.
— Microsoft Workers 4 Good (@MsWorkers4) February 22, 2019
If you’re a Microsoft employee you can sign at: //t.co/958AhvIHO5 pic.twitter.com/uUZ5P4FJ7X
The above letter states, “We are alarmed that Microsoft is working to provide weapons technology to the US Military, helping one’s government “increase lethality” using tools we built. We did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used.”
The letter then goes into a list of demands for the execs in charge of this deal:
- Cancel the IVAS contract
- Cease developing any and all weapons technologies, and draft a public-facing acceptable use policy clarifying this commitment
- Appoint an independent, external ethics review board with the power to enforce and publicly validate compliance with its acceptable use policy
The letter then goes on to detail the deal’s progression and how the participating employees feel about the guidelines of accessibility and forced participation. They added, “Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and organization on the planet to do more. But implicit in that statement, we believe it is also Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to do good.”
No word on the employee count protesting is thus far, nor if this will impact the deal in anyway, but it’s an interesting story to follow so stay tuned.
