On Tuesday night, nine Google employees were arrested for trespassing after staging a sit-in protest at Google's offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, including a protest in Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian's office.
No Tech for Apartheid Organization
The arrests, live-streamed on Twitch, followed rallies outside Google offices in New York, Sunnyvale, and Seattle, which drew hundreds of attendees, as reported by workers involved. The protests, organized by the No Tech for Apartheid organization, targeted Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract between Google and Amazon to supply cloud computing services, including artificial intelligence tools, data centers, and other infrastructure, to the Israeli government and military.
Protesters in Sunnyvale occupied Kurian's office for over nine hours before their arrests, expressing their demands on his whiteboard and wearing shirts stating "Googler against genocide." Meanwhile, protesters occupied a common space across three floors in New York. Five individuals from Sunnyvale and four from New York were arrested.
Cheyne Anderson, a Google Cloud software engineer based in Washington, expressed opposition to Google entering into any military contracts, regardless of the government or the contract's specifics. Anderson believes that as an international company, Google impacts people on both ends of military actions, including those within its employee and user base. Anderson flew to Sunnyvale to participate in the protest at Kurian's office and was subsequently arrested on Tuesday.
Mounting Pressure on Google's Partnership with Israeli Military
A Google spokesperson informed CNBC that Google Cloud provides its cloud computing services to various governments worldwide, including the Israeli government, in countries where it operates. They clarified that this involvement does not extend to highly sensitive, classified, or military-related tasks related to weapons or intelligence services.
The demonstrations highlight the mounting pressure Google faces from employees who oppose the military application of its AI and cloud technology. In a recent incident, Google Cloud engineer Eddie Hatfield interrupted a keynote speech by the managing director of Google's Israel business, refusing to build technology that powers genocide, who was later terminated from his position. During the same week, an internal message board for Google employees was shut down after discussions regarding the company's contracts with the Israeli military, which a spokesperson characterized as divisive content that is disruptive to their workplace.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense purportedly sought consulting services from Google to enhance its utilization of Google Cloud services. The Israeli government reportedly utilizes platforms like Google Photos for surveillance operations in Gaza, as detailed by The New York Times.
The Googlers Against Genocide's Sit-In Protest
The sit-in protest in New York began at noon ET and concluded around 9:30 p.m. ET. Security personnel requested that workers remove their banner, which stretched across two floors, approximately an hour into the protest, as reported by Hasan Ibraheem, a Google software engineer based in New York City and one of the individuals arrested during the demonstration.
Ibraheem expressed his realization that his workplace was deeply involved in and supporting the genocide, which prompted him to feel a responsibility to take action against it. Ibraheem emphasized the weight of his conscience regarding the fact that he receives money from Google, which is, in turn, paid by Israel, contributing to his decision to take a stand.
The New York workers were discharged from the police station approximately four hours after arrest. The nine individuals arrested in New York and Sunnyvale informed CNBC that while participating in the protest, they were barred from accessing their work accounts and offices, placed on administrative leave, and instructed to await further instructions from HR before returning to work.
The workers were also protesting their labor conditions, specifically demanding an end to what they perceived as harassment, intimidation, bullying, silencing, and censorship of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim employees at Google. Additionally, they urged the company to address the health and safety concerns faced by workers, particularly those in Google Cloud, due to the potential impacts of their work, according to a release provided by the campaign.
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