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

Protesters stormed Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters on Monday, placing them in President Brad Smith’s office in Building 34, forcing a temporary lockdown. The “azure for apartheid” group sits down on their twitch, rolls up banners, “Brad Smith, we can’t hide, we support genocide!” and posts a mock legal summons claiming Smith for “crimes against humanity.”

Microsoft did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment early in the day, but hours after the occupation, Smith held a press conference called by his desk to deal with the extraordinary event. Of the seven people involved, only two were current Microsoft employees, and one was a former Google employee, he said.

He also told reporters gathered at the scene that Redmond police had to physically remove them from the building after protesters refused to leave when asked. Police arrested all seven people on charges including trespassing and obstruction.

Smith said the actions of protesters were “not necessary to pay attention to us,” and such activities “distract us from the real dialogue” that Microsoft has with employees of various backgrounds, faiths and cultures within Microsoft.

Reports earlier that day showed that the protest included both active Microsoft workers and former employees who were fired from previous activities. Monday’s escalation follows protests over a Microsoft cloud contract with Israel. This includes recent arrests at the headquarters.

A recent Guardian investigation reveals that Israel uses Microsoft services to store data from Palestinians in Gaza and millions of phones daily in the West Bank.

Monday’s acquisition of the company reflects tactics from Google employees over a year ago. In April 2024, nine Google workers held coordinated protests across their New York and California offices, with five occupying Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian for nine hours. They wrote requests on his whiteboard and wore a “Googler against Genocide” shirt.

Google’s protesters are targeting Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion deal with Amazon, which provides cloud computing and AI tools to Israeli government and military. Employee sit-ins and arrests were similarly streamed live on Twitch. Three days later, 28 employees involved in these protests were fired.

Update: This story has been updated to reflect Smith’s comments. Smith’s comments came hours after the protesters in his office were removed, but after the film was first released.