A recent global outage of Microsoft services, caused by a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, has sparked concerns about the tech giant’s priorities and focus. The outage, which affected banks, retailers, and flight operations worldwide, highlights the potential consequences of distractions from core technical products.
Microsoft has been allocating increasing resources to left-wing diversity initiatives and political censorship crusades, which has raised eyebrows among critics. The company’s partnership with NewsGuard, an establishment “news-rating” project, has been criticized for its biased approach to labeling news outlets as “disinformation” and its potential to silence dissenting voices.
Moreover, Microsoft’s emphasis on wokeness has led to the addition of pronouns to user profiles in Microsoft 365, the company’s widely-used office software suite. Senior Microsoft employees have also made public statements about their race and gender, and the company has pledged race-based hiring targets to address “racial injustice.”
Elon Musk has called attention to the extensive focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at CrowdStrike, which matches Microsoft’s level of commitment.
On Friday, Musk wrote on X, which he owns, that “we just deleted CrowdStrike from all our systems, so no rollouts at all,” in reply to another user commenting on the incidents.
While some critics have been dismissed as peddling an “idiotic conspiracy theory,” the criticism of Microsoft’s DEI agenda continues to gain traction.
Despite recent layoffs in its DEI department, a Microsoft spokesman has reaffirmed the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. However, the recent outage has led many to question whether Microsoft’s priorities should be redirected to ensuring the stability and reliability of its core products.
