Elon Musk blames diversity efforts for the widespread CrowdStrike digital pandemic that stunted Microsoft services
Elon Musk holds diversity policies responsible for CrowdStrike’s global tech meltdown.
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What you need to know
On July 19, 2024, the world woke up to adigital pandemicaffecting Microsoft services in networking and cloud computing. Experts and analysts referred to the CrowdStrike BSoD as the “biggest IT outage the world has ever seen.”
The issue was narrowed down to a faulty CrowdStrike kernel driver, but services have seemingly been restored after Microsoft repaired its Azure servers. CrowdStrike issued a separate statement acknowledging the bug and later confirmed it had issued a fix.
Billionaire and X owner Elon Musk has been vocal about the mass outage affecting Microsoft services while tooting X’s horn for remaining functional amid the chaos. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives have been on Musk’s radar, with the billionaire claiming it isjust another word for racism.
Musk coincidentally replied to a CrowdStrike post on X from 2022, announcing its Gold partnership with Bright Network’s panel on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Musk commented on the post by indicating, “Not very ‘bright’ right now, is it?” Perhaps correlating the mass outage to CrowdStrike’s DEI initiatives (viaQuartz).
Not very “bright” right now, is it?July 19, 2024
For context, Elon Musk has been under fire for his views on diversity, especially after indicating that the issues affecting Boeing’s 737 Max 9 are directly related to hiring too many non-white pilots and factory workers.
Whilespeaking to CNNin March, Musk claimed Duke University lowered its standards to foster more diversity. However, the university issued a statement refuting Musk’s claims and indicated its standards remain the same and will continue to be based on merit.
I guess crowdstrike doesn’t do staged rollouts?July 19, 2024
While the CrowdStrike BSoD chaos might be behind us, Elon Musk recently shared on X that “we just deleted CrowdStrike from all our systems, so no rollouts at all.”
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In other DEI news, Microsoft recentlydismissed its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) teamdue to “changing business needs.” In an internal email shared by the team’s former lead, Microsoft’s top executives were accused of “investigated and evidenced discrimination, harassment, and toxicity.” Despite the highlighted changes, the company remains committed to diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Kevin Okemwa is a seasoned tech journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya with lots of experience covering the latest trends and developments in the industry at Windows Central. With a passion for innovation and a keen eye for detail, he has written for leading publications such as OnMSFT, MakeUseOf, and Windows Report, providing insightful analysis and breaking news on everything revolving around the Microsoft ecosystem. You’ll also catch him occasionally contributing at iMore about Apple and AI. While AFK and not busy following the ever-emerging trends in tech, you can find him exploring the world or listening to music.
