28 Google employees who participated in protests fired

Google employees and other demonstrators protest the Gaza war and Google’s cooperation with the Israeli government in front of Google’s offices in Sunnyvale, California, on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (Daily Kanno/Bay Area News Group)

Google has fired 28 employees for participating in protests at its facilities on Tuesday, a spokesperson confirmed to the Mercury News.

About 80 employees protested outside Google’s Sunnyvale complex, demanding the company scrap Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract to provide computing services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Five people were arrested by Sunnyvale police on suspicion of trespassing after holding a sit-in at one of the company’s buildings. Similar sit-ins and protests were held at Google’s offices in New York.

Google said in a statement that the protesters violated Google policies by physically interfering with other employees’ work and blocking access to facilities. The company is conducting individual investigations into the fired employees and will continue to investigate and take action as necessary. Google did not say how many of its 28 employees worked in the Bay Area.

Tuesday’s action against Project Nimbus comes as news outlets reported that Israel has its own Google Cloud “landing zone,” providing the government with a way to store and process data and access AI services. It emanates from the beginning. Protesters have raised concerns about the company’s potential use of AI against civilians in Gaza.

Google operates its cloud in many governments, including Israel, and said its work on Nimbus “targets highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads related to weapons or intelligence.” It’s not something I did.”

Advocacy group Notech4aparttheid, which also helped organize the protests, condemned the shooting and the project in a recent online statement.

“This flagrant act of retaliation clearly shows that Google cares more about its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and military than its own workers,” the group said. says.