View source for News/Microsoft HQ Protesters Arrested

{{News
|seo_title=Microsoft HQ Protesters Arrested
|seo_keywords=Microsoft
|image=Microsoft.png
|tags=Microsoft
|date=2025-08-21T10:56:24.000Z
|sources={{NewsSource
|source=Games Industry
|url=https://www.gamesindustry.biz/18-protesters-arrested-at-microsoft-hq
|article=News/Microsoft HQ Protesters Arrested
}}
|author=Andura
|category=Drama
|content=Tensions escalated at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters on Tuesday, August 20, as 18 individuals were arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest organized by the activist group No Azure for Apartheid. The demonstration, which targeted Microsoft’s business ties with Israel, entered its second day with protesters re-establishing what they call a “Liberation Zone” in the company’s East Campus Plaza.

The group, composed of current and former Microsoft employees alongside community activists, renamed the protest site the “Martyred Palestinian Children's Plaza.” According to an Instagram post by No Azure for Apartheid on Wednesday, the group had "set up tents, displayed art to honor Palestinian martyrs, and gave speeches about Microsoft's complicity in the surveillance and genocide of Palestinians."

But just after noon on Tuesday, the demonstration turned confrontational. Protesters allege that [[Companies/Microsoft|Microsoft]], in coordination with Redmond police, responded with force. "The brutal mass arrest of 18 protestors, chemical weapons, and physical violence," were used against what they described as "peaceful opposition of war crimes," according to the Instagram statement.

Protesters further claimed that “current workers, former workers, and community members were hog-tied, violently dragged around, and pepper-sprayed in a repressive escalation.” They accused both Microsoft and Redmond Police of choosing "to dehumanize, brutalize, and criminalize people of conscience for opposing Microsoft's actual war crimes."

Despite the arrests, the group vowed to continue its campaign, declaring, “The Worker Intifada is an answer to Gaza's call for action, and so The Worker Intifada will live on.”

Redmond Police confirmed the arrests in a statement on X (formerly Twitter) on August 21. The department said officers initially attempted to trespass demonstrators from the campus, but that protesters “resisted and became aggressive.”

Authorities allege that some activists poured paint on Microsoft signage and the surrounding area, while others blocked a pedestrian bridge and used “stolen tables and chairs from vendors to form a barrier.”

The 18 individuals were arrested on “multiple charges, including trespassing, malicious mischief, resisting arrest, and obstruction,” according to police. They also stated that “no injuries were reported.”

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}}