Google fired 28 employees for participating in Tuesday’s protests at the company’s premises, a spokesperson confirmed to the Mercury News.
About 80 employees protested outside the Google complexes in Sunnyvale, demanding that the company abandon Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract that provides IT services to the Israeli Defense Ministry. Five were arrested by Sunnyvale police for criminal trespassing after a sit-in at one of the company’s buildings. Similar sit-ins and protests took place at Google’s offices in New York.
The protesters violated Google policies by physically obstructing the work of other employees and preventing them from accessing facilities, according to a Google statement. The company says it has conducted individual investigations into the terminated employees and will continue to investigate and take appropriate action. Google did not disclose how many of the 28 employees worked in the Bay Area.
Tuesday’s action against Project Nimbus stems from media reports that Israel has its own Google Cloud “landing zone,” providing the government with a way to store and process data and access AI services . Protesters expressed concerns that the company could use AI against civilians in Gaza.
Google says it operates the cloud in many governments, including Israel, and that Nimbus’ work is “not intended for highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads related to weapons or intelligence services.”
Advocacy group Notech4apartheid, which also helped organize the protest, condemned the layoffs and the project in a recent online statement.
“This blatant act of retaliation is a clear indication that Google values its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and army more than its own workers,” the group says.
California Daily Newspapers
