Protect fundamental rights

We aspire to be leaders in human rights and a catalyst for action by others. We rely on international standards to ensure our business activities respect and promote human rights and that technology plays a positive role.

We support humanitarian and first responder organizations—not just during response and recovery—but also by increasing their capacity to respond to future emergencies. Our AI for Humanitarian Action program helps nonprofit and humanitarian organizations accelerate their impact.

We work to ensure transparency and ethical standards across our global supply chain—protecting the rights of people by maintaining responsible practices in sourcing, production, and distribution.

For the past several years, Microsoft has supported bills that reform the US immigration system so that we can attract and retain skilled talent, an integral component of the US economy.

We preserve and enrich cultural heritage by empowering people and organizations with AI to help them preserve the languages we speak, the places we live, and the artifacts we treasure.

Our Democracy Forward Initiative works to protect campaigns from hacking, increase political advertising transparency, defend against disinformation, ensure a healthy information ecosystem, and uphold fair and secure electoral processes in democratic countries.

Today, information operations pose one of the most serious cyber threats and risks weakening the foundations of democracies worldwide. Technology and the internet have played a part in the rise of this threat and should also be significant tools in combatting it.

Democracy draws its power from the participation of its citizens. An informed and civically literate electorate is critical to the stability and functioning of democracy.

Healthy democracies require healthy journalism. Technology has played a role in the disruption of news, but it can also help rebuild the news business from the decline that accelerated during the pandemic.

Approximately 2.7 billion people globally do not have access to the internet. Our Airband Initiative brings affordable access to millions of people in unserved communities so they can participate in school, work, telehealth, and more.

Accurate mapping is essential to disburse broadband funds efficiently and maximize resources and investments in communities of highest need. This tool was designed to empower state agencies, nonprofits, and policymakers to identify regions within their state with significant digital equity gaps.

Protecting fundamental rights for all means addressing the disability divide. We're expanding our commitment to accessibility in our technology, workforce, and workplace.

We're taking action to improve the lived experience of Black and African American communities. This starts with an investment in our own culture of inclusion and extends to how we engage our ecosystem and strengthen our communities.

We are building on our momentum, adding a $150 million investment to strengthen inclusion and double the number of US Black and African American, and Hispanic and Latinx people managers, senior individual contributors, and senior leaders by 2025.

We are using our balance sheet and relationships with suppliers and partners to foster societal change and create new opportunity.

We are using data, technology, and partnership to help improve the lives of Black and African American people in the US, which also includes our employees and their communities.