Google has fired 28 employees for participating in Tuesday’s protests at company facilities, a spokesperson confirmed to the Mercury News.
Roughly 80 employees protested outside Google complexes in Sunnyvale, demanding the company drop Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract that provides computing services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Five were arrested by Sunnyvale police for criminal trespassing after a sit-in at one of the company’s building. Similar sit-ins and protests were held at Google office in New York.
Protesters violated Google’s policies by physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing facilities, according to a statement from Google. The company states it conducted individual investigations of the fired employees and will continue to investigate and take action as needed. Google has not revealed how many of the 28 employees worked in the Bay Area.
Tuesday’s action against Project Nimbus stem from news outlets reporting that Israel has its own Google Cloud “landing zone”, providing the government with a way to store and process data and access AI services. Protesters have expressed concerns about the company potentially using AI against civilians in Gaza.
Google states that it operates the cloud in numerous governments including Israel, and that Nimbus work is,”not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”
Advocacy group Notech4apartheid, which also helped organize the protest, condemned the firings and the project in a recent online statement.
“This flagrant act of retaliation is a clear indication that Google values its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and military more than its own workers,” the group states.