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Cloud blocked: Microsoft says stop to military surveillance

It's a technological bombshell: Microsoft is blocking the Israeli Ministry of Defense's access to certain cloud and AI services. The reason? An Israeli military unit is said to have used the Microsoft Azure platform to monitor civilians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The US tech giant is thus taking an unusually clear stance - and making it clear that it does not provide technology to enable mass surveillance of civilians. This is what Microsoft President Brad Smith said.

This line is not a reaction to current events, but has been a company principle worldwide for over 20 years. But now Microsoft is publicly drawing such a line for the first time - and it carries weight.

What had happened?

The decision was triggered by a report in the British newspaper The Guardian on August 15. It revealed that an Israeli military unit had used Azure to store data from intercepted phone calls - presumably from widespread surveillance in the Palestinian territories.

Microsoft responded with an internal investigation. Although this has not yet been completed, Brad Smith explained that "evidence has already been found to support elements of the Guardian's reporting". Among them:

• The use of AI services by the Israeli military
• Access to an Azure data center in the Netherlands
• Evidence of systematic data collection on civilians

Result: Microsoft pulls the ripcord and withdraws the relevant services from the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

A company on an ethical course?

The measure not only concerns storage solutions, but also artificial intelligence, which is used to analyze and evaluate large amounts of data - in other words, exactly what makes monitoring systems efficient.

With this step, Microsoft is setting an example: Ethics beats business. And this in an environment in which multi-billion dollar government contracts with tech companies have long been part of everyday life.

But the decision also raises questions: should companies like Microsoft really be allowed to decide for themselves how and where their technologies are used? Or is this the task of states and democratically legitimized institutions?

The fact is that the boundaries between political action and economic influence are becoming blurred - and corporations such as Microsoft are increasingly taking on roles that were previously reserved for governments.

And now what?

It remains to be seen whether Microsoft's decision will set a precedent. One thing is clear: control over digital infrastructure is just as powerful today as access to oil or weapons. Anyone who shuts down services such as Azure or AI tools can slow down entire systems.

For the Israeli military, this means a technical setback. For the global tech world: an ethical signal. And for all of us: the realization that power over digital systems no longer lies solely with states.

Political power of the corporations

When Big Tech suddenly becomes a moral authority, something is going wrong. The fact that Microsoft is blocking its services is understandable - and scary at the same time. Because today it's Israel. Tomorrow it might be another state. And at some point a company or even an individual? When corporations start ethically filtering who gets access to technology, it quickly becomes arbitrary. Perhaps we need not only an ethics of technology - but also rules that apply to everyone.