Microsoft recently suffered a major global outage due to a recently pushed update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, sparking a major wakeup call for the woke DEI-focused tech world.
The massive outage to Microsoft services that shuttered banks, retailers, and grounded flights across the world didn’t happen in a vacuum. Like many other Silicon Valley companies, Microsoft has spent years allocating a growing share of its attention and resources to matters that have nothing to do with its core tech products – matters such as left-wing diversity initiativesand political censorship crusades.
As reported by the New York Times, Friday’s worldwide cyber crash was caused not just by the failure of CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity service used by many Microsoft systems, but also by an earlier outage affecting some users of Azure, Microsoft’s cloud hosting provider. This was the double whammy that caused global mayhem.
Could Friday’s global computer catastrophe have happened regardless of whether Microsoft had been distracted by non-technical hobby horses for nearly a decade? Sure. But it also can’t be denied that even by Silicon Valley standards, Microsoft has been particularly preoccupied with political crusades in recent years.
The tech giant was one of the first to officially partner with NewsGuard, the establishment “news-rating” project that builds blacklists of disfavored news outlets that it then sells to advertisers to cut off their revenue. Despite claiming to be a watchdog against “misinformation,” NewsGuard’s leading figures have spread misinformation about major national news stories.
Then there’s the wokeness. Microsoft 365, formerly known as Microsoft Office, one of the most widely-used suites of office software in the world, has an option for users to add pronouns to their profiles. In public conferences, senior Microsoft employees opened their remarks with statements about their race and gender, while others acknowledged that Microsoft’s headquarters is built on originally indigenous land in Washington State. In 2020, Microsoft pledged new race-based hiring targets to address “racial injustice.”
Elon Musk has called attention to the preoccupation with DEI at CrowdStrike, which matches Microsoft’s in its extensiveness. The left wing media is rushing to discredit criticism of the corporate DEI agenda, with the New Republic calling it an ‘idiotic conspiracy theory.’ But that hasn’t stopped the tide of criticism.
Though Microsoft has laid off some of its bloated DEI department recently, a Micorosoft spokesman insisted that its stance on diversity had not changed.
“Our focus on diversity and inclusion is unwavering and we are holding firm on our expectations, prioritizing accountability, and continuing to focus on this work,” said the Microsoft spokesman.
Given last Friday’s chaotic outage, many might be wondering if Microsoft’s area of priority and focus should be restricted to just one: making sure its core products work.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
