On 2 December 2025, a coalition of international law experts and human rights groups sent a letter to Satya Nadella, Microsoft's chairman and CEO, as well as Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, warning that the company's:

"past and continued provision of services—including cloud technology, artificial intelligence, and data processing—to the Israeli military, intelligence, and other governmental branches opens your company up to civil and criminal liability for aiding and abetting, contributing to, or otherwise being complicit in Israel’s commission of atrocity crimes and grave human rights violations against the Palestinian population of Gaza."

The letter specifically cites the company's alleged role in "genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity", and calls for the immediate termination of Microsoft’s provision of all products and services that are being "unlawfully deployed by Israel". The authors argue that Microsoft knowingly enabled Israeli military operations linked to human rights violations in Gaza through its partnerships and customized services, and although it restricted one unit’s access in 2025, it continues to support other military programs, maintaining potential legal liability.

The letter was published a few days before Microsoft's Annual General Meeting, where a shareholder proposal requesting improved, conflict-specific human rights due diligence (proposal #9) was up for a vote. Fifty-nine shareholders co-filed the resolution, emphasizing that the work done thus far by Microsoft, such as the issuance of blogs with high-level updates, is not enough, and that a lack of visibility is not an acceptable risk management strategy. The shareholder proposal specifically stated:

Inadequate [human rights due diligence] HRDD exposes Microsoft to material legal, operational, and reputational risks. For example, Microsoft’s potential complicity in international crimes in Gaza has resulted in outspoken opposition from its own employees, a boycott and divestment campaign against the Company, and severe reputational damage that may harm long-term shareholder value.

Notably, Microsoft's Board, recommended investors vote against proposal 9. It claims that the company already has "robust" human rights due diligence processes in place, and that they are already taking the necessary actions to address the "Middle East Crisis":

On September 25, 2025, we announced initial findings that some of the Isreali Ministry of Defense’s (“IMOD’) use of Azure storage capacity and AI services violated our terms of service. We communicated our decision to cease and disable specified IMOD subscriptions and their services, including their use of specific cloud storage and AI services and technologies. We reviewed this decision with IMOD and the steps we are taking to ensure compliance with our terms of service, focused on ensuring our services are not used for mass surveillance of civilians...Covington & Burling is providing recommendations based on this specific review and on a broader examination of our human rights due diligence processes, which we will make public and consider to bolster our due diligence processes further... - (Microsoft's Proxy Report, pg 88)

However, Microsoft has not consistently responded to queries from the Business & Human Rights Centre over the past years with regard to heightened human rights due diligence for conflict affected areas. As noted in our previous report "Switched off: Tech company opacity & Israel’s war on Gaza", Microsoft did not respond about how it is mitigating risk with regard to Israel and Palestine, nor did it respond concerning the Russia and Ukraine war.

Though the proposal ultimately did not pass, 26% of shareholders presented a powerful rebuke to Microsoft's handling of human rights risks embedded within its contracts with the Israeli military.

On 3 December 2025, the Business & Human Rights Centre contacted Microsoft to respond to the allegations of civil and criminal liability "for aiding and abetting, contributing to, or otherwise being complicit in Israel’s commission of atrocity crimes". Microsoft did not respond.