BDS calls for boycott of Microsoft and Xbox gaming products over alleged Israeli military connections
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Summary
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is calling for a boycott of Microsoft properties including Xbox and Minecraft, as well as the company’s Azure cloud technology, alleging links with the Israeli military’s invasion of Gaza.
This is following an investigation in January this year claiming that Azure was being used to support combat and intelligence activities by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
Furthermore, Microsoft is reported to have provided large scale access to Open AI’s GPT-4 to the IDF.
This is not the first time BDS has called for a boycott of Microsoft; in 2020 the organisation campaigned successfully for Microsoft to sell its stake in Israeli start-up Anyvision, which specialised in facial recognition technology.
Anyvision’s technology had been used at checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank.
