International Desk, 18th April: Google has terminated the employment of 28 employees who participated in protests against the company’s cloud-computing contract with Israel, known as Project Nimbus.
The employees staged sit-in protests at Google’s New York and Sunnyvale offices, prompting their dismissal as per a memo obtained by The Verge. The memo, issued by Chris Rackow, Google’s head of global security, described the protest actions as ‘unacceptable and extremely disruptive’.
The fired employees, who had their system access cut off, were part of a group within Google called ‘No Tech for Apartheid’. This group criticized Google for not responding to their concerns for three years and labeled the firings as ‘retaliatory’.
The protests were against Project Nimbus, a billion-dollar AI contract signed in 2021, which the employees claimed was contributing to the use of AI in the ongoing Gaza conflict. The protestors had live-streamed their demands on Twitch, calling for Google to sever all ties with the Israeli military and government, and address a ‘health and safety crisis’ among workers.
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