In response to this week’s sit-in protests at two of its offices, Google fired 28 employees, according to an internal memo that The Verge was able to get. Nine workers were suspended on Tuesday before being taken into custody in California and New York.
According to CNN, the dismissed workers had participated in demonstrations against Google’s participation in Project Nimbus, an Israeli government cloud deal worth $1.2 billion that also involves Amazon. A few of them worked in Thomas Kurian, the CEO of Google Cloud’s office until law authorities forcibly removed them. Another Google employee was let go last month for objecting to the deal during an Israeli business presentation.
Since 2021, the workers have been participating in protests and writing petitions opposing Google’s agreement to sell technology to Israel as members of an organization called No Tech for Apartheid.
Since the Israel-Gaza war started in October, there has been more strain among Google and Amazon personnel regarding the cloud computing contract, known as Nimbus. Opponents of the initiative claim it will increase discrimination and displacement against Palestinians while also strengthening Israeli government monitoring of them.
In 2021, Google Cloud declared that it had been selected to offer “public cloud services to help address the country’s challenges within the public sector, including in healthcare, transportation, and education.” This announcement marked the beginning of Google Cloud’s relationship with the Israeli government.
However, the demonstrations came after a revelation that the Israeli Ministry of Defence is a Google Cloud user that appeared in Time magazine earlier this month, citing an internal business document.
Time claims that the ministry has a secure gateway to Google’s cloud computing infrastructure that it may use to store, process, and use artificial intelligence services. According to Time, the ministry also asked Google for consulting help earlier this year to increase its access to Google Cloud.
According to No Tech for Apartheid, the article revealed that Google had “doubled down on contracting” with Israel’s military since the war began and had “built custom tools” for the Ministry of Defence.
Google Cloud “supports numerous governments around the world, including the Israeli government,” according to a Google representative.
“We have made it abundantly evident that the Nimbus contract is only for workloads executed by Israeli government agencies that agree to abide by our Acceptable Use Policy and Terms of Service in our commercial cloud. The statement went on, “This work is not focused on extremely sensitive, classified, or military workloads related to weapons or intelligence agencies.
Google also said it is undergoing an internal reorganization that would result in an undisclosed number of new layoffs. Employees affected by the layoffs won’t lose their jobs; instead, they can apply to other open positions at Google.
Earlier this year, Google announced the layoff of hundreds of workers, joining a wave of layoffs at Amazon, Vice, and the Los Angeles Times among other digital and media companies.
Employees at Google have previously taken part in activism against contracts that they believed to be unethical. In 2018, Google employees successfully put pressure on the business to end a contract known as Project Maven, which involves helping the military analyze drone footage.
Employees engaged in the Nimbus activism have pledged to carry on their protests until Google completely abandons Project Nimbus, even in the face of the dismissals. The continuous conflict between Google’s management and activist staff members highlights the need for a wider discussion about corporate social responsibility and moral issues in business alliances. To sum up, the choice made by Google to terminate the employment of 28 workers amidst demonstrations against its cloud computing agreement with the Israeli government illustrates the intricate interplay between business objectives and moral considerations. It will be interesting to observe how businesses resolve these issues while honoring their commitments and ideals as the discussion rages on.