Several Google employees in California and New York have been protesting against the company for working with the Israeli government. Some of the employees, who staged a huge protest at Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office in California, were arrested after they refused to move from the spot until their demands were met after more than 8 hours. These demands included that Google should stop providing cloud computing services to the Israeli government. A video of the incident has also been shared online, in which the employees can be seen sitting inside the Google office.
As mentioned already, Google employees staged a protest at various Google offices, including New York and California. The protest was over the billion-dollar AI contract, Project Nimbus, which was signed in 2021, as reported by Daily Wire.
The protests escalated when a group of employees occupied the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian for more than eight hours on Tuesday. They broadcasted their sit-in live, declaring their demands during the “notech4apartheid” Twitch livestream. These demands included Google severing all ties with the Israeli military and government, and addressing what they called a “health and safety crisis” among workers.
As night fell, a company official approached the protesters, informing them they had been placed on administrative leave and requested they vacate the premises. The refusal to leave led to law enforcement stepping in. The police were called to the scene, and the employees were arrested, marking a dramatic end to the livestream.
The demonstrators were part of the No Tech for Apartheid movement, a group within Google that has been increasingly vocal about the company’s business decisions.
One of the protestors, Emaan Haseem, told abc7news that she doesn’t want to lose her job but it is not possible to come to work every week without ” acknowledging and loudly condemning Project Nimbus and any support for the Israeli government.”
Haseem, who is working as a Software Engineer at the company, explained how several employees had resigned from the company citing Project Nimbus as the reason.
“We’ve already had Googlers resign citing that Project Nimbus was the main concern for their poor mental health and was the main reason why they had to leave Google,” Haseem told the publication.
The abc7 news report also added that Google employees think that the services provided by Project Nimbus are contributing to the use of AI in the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which they describe as the first AI-powered genocide.
The protest not only signifies growing unrest within Google but also poses questions about the responsibilities of tech giants in global political and human rights issues. The employees, through their actions, hoped to spark a change within the company, urging it to reconsider its contracts and the ethical implications of its technological deployments.
Google has not publicly responded to the incident or the demands of the protesters.
Source Agencies
