Microsoft, AI for Israel, & Hindu nationalist backlash: Vaniya Agrawal speaks out | Real Talk

“The point was to make people aware… The world knows now who [Microsoft] truly are, and what they’re doing.” As Microsoft celebrated its 50th anniversary with a panel featuring Bill Gates, one employee stood up and disrupted the event. Her message: Microsoft is complicit in Israel’s war on Gaza. The young software engineer, Vaniya Agrawal, was then fired by Microsoft. Now, she’s speaking out. In this Real Talk interview, Vaniya is opening up about why she risked her job to protest, what happened behind the scenes, and the harassment she’s received from Hindu nationalists. Real Talk is a Middle East Eye interview programme hosted by Mohamed Hashem. Timestamps: 00:00 – Meet Vaniya Agrawal 02:00 – Landing jobs at Amazon & Microsoft 09:31 – Joining Microsoft just before 7 October 11:44 – Learning about Microsoft’s ties to Israeli army 21:50 – Finding the No Azure for Apartheid campaign 31:56 – Inside her viral protest moment 39:19 – Locked out, then fired 48:58 – Cutting Microsoft’s Israel ties 50:52 – Online harassment & Hindu nationalist backlash 53:02 – Connecting Hindutva & Zionism 56:59 – Where is Vaniya today? ------------------- Catch MEE LIVE, our new biweekly live news programme, where we take a look at the news shaping our world through breaking coverage, expert analysis and hard-hitting interviews. MEE LIVE: Tuesday & Thursday | 12pm ET | 5pm BST | Join the conversation at [email protected] Support stories that matter. Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR0fZh5SBxxMNYdg0VzRFkg/join Subscribe to our channel: http://ow.ly/AVlW30n1OWH Subscribe to MEE Telegram channel to stay up to date: https://t.me/MiddleEastEye_TG Middle East Eye Website: https://middleeasteye.net Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@middleeasteye Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/MiddleEastEye Like us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/MiddleEastEye Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MiddleEastEye