Nine Google Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian was arrested on trespassing charges after employees staged sit-ins at the company’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, Calif., on Tuesday night, including a protest at the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian.
The arrests followed rallies outside Google offices in New York, Sunnyvale and Seattle that were streamed on Twitch and drew hundreds of participants, according to staff involved. The protests, led by Apartheid No Tech, focused on Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract between Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud computing services, including artificial intelligence tools, Data centers and other cloud infrastructure.
Protesters in Sunnyvale sat in Kurian’s office for more than nine hours before being arrested, writing demands on Kurian’s whiteboard and wearing shirts that read “Googlers Stand Against Genocide.” . In New York, protesters sat on three floors of public space. Five workers from Sunnyvale and four from New York were arrested.
Cheyne Anderson, a Google Cloud software engineer in Washington, told CNBC: “Personally, I am opposed to Google accepting any military contract, no matter which government they work with or what the contract is.” There’s this perspective, because Google is a global company, no matter what arm it’s in, there’s always going to be someone on the receiving end…Google’s employee base and our user base are represented.” Anderson flew to Sunnyvale to attend Curry. He was one of the workers arrested on Tuesday amid protests at An’s office.
“Google Cloud supports many governments in the countries in which we operate, including the government of Israel, through our generally available cloud computing services,” a Google spokesperson told CNBC. He added, “This work does not target highly sensitive, confidential or military workload related to weapons or intelligence services.
The demonstrations illustrate the pressure Google faces from workers opposed to the military use of its artificial intelligence and cloud technology. Last month, Google Cloud engineer Eddie Hatfield interrupted a keynote speech by Google’s managing director for Israel and said, “I refuse to develop technology that contributes to genocide.” Hatfield was subsequently fired. That same week, Google’s internal employee message board was shut down after employees made comments about the company’s Israeli military contracts. A spokesperson at the time described the posts as “divisive content that undermines our workplace.”
On October 7, Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 240 hostages. The next day, Israel declared war and began a siege of Gaza, cutting off electricity, food, water and fuel supplies.At least 33,899 people have been killed in Gaza since that date, the enclave’s health ministry said said wednesday in a statement on Telegram.January at the United Nations Supreme Court, Israel Denies genocide accusations Brought to you by South Africa.
israel ministry of defense Reportedly seeking consulting services from Google Expand access to Google Cloud services.Google Photos is one of them Platform used by the Israeli government Surveillance in Gaza, The New York Times reported.
“I think what happened yesterday proved that Google’s efforts to silence all opposition to this contract not only didn’t work, but actually had the opposite effect,” Ariel Koren, a former Google employee who opposed the Nimbus project contract, told CNBC. “It really just creates more excitement, more anger and more commitment.”
The New York sit-in began at noon ET and ended around 9:30 p.m. Hasan Ibraheem, a Google software engineer in New York City and one of the arrested employees, said that about an hour into the protest, security asked employees to take down the banner that spanned two floors.
Hasan Ibraheem, a Google software engineer in New York City, told CNBC: “I realized, ‘Oh, the place I work at is complicit in and contributing to this genocide— I have a responsibility to take action against it, Ibrahim added, “The fact that I receive money from Google and Israel is paying Google — I receive a portion of that money is very stressful for me. . “
The New York staff member was released from the police station about four hours later.
The nine workers arrested in New York and Sunnyvale told CNBC they were banned from their work accounts and offices during the protests, placed on administrative leave and told not to return to work until contacted by human resources.
Workers are also protesting their labor conditions – “an end to the company’s harassment, intimidation, bullying, silencing and censorship of Palestinian, Arab, Muslim Google employees – and demanding that the company address employee health and safety crises, particularly at Google.” employees face the potential impact of their jobs,” a press release from the event said.
“A small number of employee protesters entered and disrupted several of our office locations,” a Google spokesperson told CNBC. “Physically obstructing other employees from doing their work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and we will investigate and take action.” Action. These employees have been placed on administrative leave and their access to our systems has been cut off. After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement removed them to ensure office security.
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