The Israel ongoing siege and assault on Gaza has today led to the arrest of 9 google employees. After an 8hr sit in at the company’s offices in New York and California, the 9 were arrested early Wednesday morning.
Google is currently fulfilling a $1.2 billion cloud contract it has with the Israeli government alongside Amazon. The two tech giants provide the Israeli Ministry of Défense with cloud services, machine learning service and more. The name of this contract that has sparked controversy is Project Nimbus.
During the protest, employees based at the Sunnyvale, California, campus took over Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office. As this happened, their counterparts in New York held a sit-in in the common area of their office’s 10th floor. The Sunnyvale employees chose to livestream their protest on Twitch. Hence, the moment six police officers enter the office to arrest the five of them is captured live.
A media report states that at least 40 of the tech giant staff were unhappy with the company’s involvement with the Israeli government. They have since joined a protest group named “No Tech for Apartheid”. One of them was fired for shouting down a Google Executive from Israel.
It’s unclear how exactly Project Nimbus is being used. The Israeli government described it as a comprehensive cloud solution for various government departments, including the military.
Google faces a wave of employee dissent in response to the war, with some protesting or even leaving the company. In March, 2 members of staff allegedly quit their jobs due to the war in Gaza. Google has recently made other efforts to reduce office discussion of Gaza. The company is said to have censored its internal messaging board, Memegen. Reportedly, Google has removed features of Memegen, including the ability to downvote posts.
