Microsoft 50th anniversary protesters fired, tech giant reprimands former employee for not apologizing or showing remorse

Microsoft fired the employees who interrupted the company's 50th Anniversary event last week. Ibtihal Aboussad, a software engineer at Microsoft until the termination, was fired due to "acts of misconduct."

Details of the terminations were reported by The Verge, which reviewed an internal email on the matter.

During the event, Aboussad interrupted Microsoft Copilot CEO Mustafa Suleyman, accusing Microsoft of being a "war profiteer" due to its contracts with Israel.

The Verge shared an excerpt of the email that was sent to Aboussad:

"Earlier today, you interrupted a speech by Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman during the Company’s 50th anniversary event in Redmond, Seattle, by yelling and finger-pointing at the CEO before a live audience of thousands of attendees, and making hostile, unprovoked, and highly inappropriate accusations against the CEO, the Company and Microsoft generally. While the CEO remained calm and attempted to de-escalate the matter, your conduct was so aggressive that you had to be escorted out of the room by security."

Another excerpt shared by The Verge admonishes Aboussad for not apologizing:

"The company has concluded that your misconduct was designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event,” the email to Aboussad reads. “It is also concerning that you have not apologized to the company, and in fact you have shown no remorse for the effect that your actions have had and will have.”

Our Senior Editor Zac Bowden shared a video of Aboussad:

Following the protest, Aboussad sent an email to many Microsoft employees, the full contents of which can be found in our initial coverage of the Microsoft 50th anniversary protest.

Later during the event, a second protester, Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer. Agrawal also emailed Microsoft employees.

According to The Verge, Agrawal submitted her two weeks’ notice before the protest but was later dismissed.

Microsoft has not issued an official comment on the protests or dismissals.