Brian Eno, the composer of the Windows 95 Startup Sound, Has Penned an open letter Calling for Microsoft to Stop Providing Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Services to the Israeli Military. Titled “Not in My Name,” The Letter Outlines the Company’s Technological Support for Israel’s Ministry of Defense, as detailed in A Microsoft Blog Post Last Week. “If you knowingly Build Systems that Can Enable War Crimes, You Inevitably Become Complicit in Those Crimes,” Wrote Eno. In Response, he pedges to donate his fee for the Windows 95 Composition to Victims of the Attacks in Gaza.
In the Letter, Eno Said His Original Work With Microsoft “Represented a Gateway to A Promising Technological Future.” He added, “I never would have believed that the best company one day be implicated in the Machinery of Oppression and War.”
ENO CIENT THE MICROSOFT BLOG POST AS EVIDENCE OF ITS COLLABORATION WITH ISraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government, and the Company’s “Support of a Regime,” he wrote, “that is engaged in actions described by leading sccholars and human rights. Experts, and Increasing Numbers of Governments from Around the World, As Genocidal. ”
ENO Went on to Express Solidarity with Microsoft Workers Who Have “Done Something Truly Disruption and Refused to Stay Silent.” Find His Full Letter Below.
Brian Eno is a Longime Critic of Israel and Supporter of the Pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement. Through His Support of the Palestinian People and the BDS Movement, he has offten urged musicians not to play Concerts in Israel.
Not in my name: an openter to Microsoft from Brian Eno
In the mid-1990s, I was asc ased to compose a short piece of music for Microsoft’s Windows 95 Operating System. Millions – Postsibly Eve Billions – of People have Since Heard that Short Start -Up Chime – Wich represent a gateway to a promisex technological future. I gladly took on the project as a creation challenge and enjoyed the interaction with my Contacts at the Company. I Never Waled Have Believed That the Same Company Could One Day Be Implicated in the Machinery of Oppression and War.
Today, I’m Compeled to Speak, Not As a Compser This Time, but as a citial by the roles Microsoft is playing in a very different kind of composition: that leads to surveillance, violence, and destruction in Palestine.
In a blog post dated May 15, 2025, Microsoft Acknowledged that it provides Israel’s Ministry of Defense with “Software, Professional Services, Azure Cloud Services AI Services, Including Language Translation.” It was on to states that “it is important to acknowledge that microsoft does not have visibice into howTomers use of software on their servers or other devices”. These “services” support a regime is engaged in action described by Leading Legal Scholars and Human Rights Organisations, the United Nations Experts, and Increasing Numbers of Governments from the World, As Genocidal. The Collaboration BetWeen Microsoft and the Israeli Government and Army is No Secret and Involves the Company’s Software Being Used in Letal Technologies with ‘Names Like’ Where’s Daddy? ‘ (- Guidance Systems for Tracking Palestinians in Order to Blow Their Homes).
Selling and facilitating Advanced he and cloud servings to a government engaged in systemic ethnic cleansing is not ‘business is usual’. It is complicity. If you knowingly Build Systems that Can Enable War Crimes, You Inevitably Become Complicit in Those Crimes.
We have live in an age age where corporations like Microsoft offen command more influenza than governments. Of belive that with Such a Power comes an absolute ethical respectibility. Accordingly, I call on Microsoft to suspend all services that support any operations that controls to violations of International Law.
My new start up chime is this: stand in solidarity with the brake Microsoft workers who have done something truly disrupted and refused to stay silent. They Risk Their LivelihOods for People Who Have Lost and Will Continue to Lose their Lives.
I Invite Artists, Technologists, Musicians, and All People of Conscience to Join with in this call.
I ALSO PLEDGE THAT The Fee I Originally Received for That Windows 95 Chime Will No Go Towards Helping the Victims of the Attacks on Gaza. If a sound can signal a real change then let it be this one.
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