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Rabat – A loud chorus of voices online is calling on LinkedIn to reinstate the account of Ibtihal Aboussad, a Moroccan engineer at Microsoft whose platform was suspended following her public protest against the company’s involvement in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
The petition, launched under the hashtag #ReinstateIbtihal, is gaining traction by the day across social media, as users denounce the violation of Aboussad’s right to speak out against the horrendous humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
Supporters argue that banning her account for peaceful protest sets a dangerous precedent for the silencing of dissent.
Aboussad’s protest went viral last week when she interrupted a keynote speech by Microsoft’s AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman during the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations in Redmond, Washington. The Harvard graduate walked toward the stage during a presentation on Microsoft Copilot and directly confronted the company over its complicity in Gaza war crimes.
“Mustafa, shame on you,” she declared, addressing Suleyman. “You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military. Fifty thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”
Her protest came shortly after an Associated Press investigation exposed that Microsoft and OpenAI’s tools were being used in IOF programs to select bombing targets in Gaza and Lebanon. One of the cited incidents involved a 2023 airstrike in Lebanon that killed three children and their grandmother.
Aboussad later told media outlets that her fear of remaining silent in the face of such violence outweighed concerns about her job security. “The fear of contributing to genocide is far greater,” she said.
Read also: ‘Gaza Is Not Alone’: Thousands Protest in Tangier in Support of Palestine, Oppose Israel Ties
“For the past year and a half, our Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim community at Microsoft has been silenced, intimidated, harassed, and doxxed, with impunity from Microsoft. Attempts at speaking up at best fell on deaf ears, and at worst, led to the firing of two employees for simply holding a vigil,” she wrote in an email she sent to all her fellow employees.
“We are witnessing a genocide… We are complicit,” she added, noting the atrocity of the situation.
Public response to her statement has been swift, with many touched by her courage. Across platforms, users have lauded Aboussad’s actions and condemned what they see as LinkedIn’s retaliatory silencing. The suspension of her account has only intensified scrutiny over the tech industry’s role in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and its response to internal dissent.
The online petition demands that LinkedIn immediately restore Aboussad’s account, allowing her to continue engaging with her professional network and advocacy community.
“Her voice matters,” the petition reads. “Silencing her for advocating human rights is a dangerous precedent.”
As the hashtag #ReinstateIbtihal continues to circulate online, the calls for accountability, both from tech giants and social platforms, are unlikely to quiet anytime soon.
