Google Fires 28 Employees Taking Part in Protests Over Israel Contract
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Google fired 28 employees who participated in protests over its cloud computing and AI services contract with the Israeli government amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The Details: The protests included a near-10 hour sit-in at the Google buildings in New York and Sunnyvale. Following this, nine individuals were arrested on trespassing charges. Google's vice president of global security, Chris Rackow, announced the firings in a Wednesday memo: “Following investigation, today we terminated the employment of twenty-eight employees found to be involved. We will continue to investigate and take action as needed.” Rackow continued, saying, “Behavior like this has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it. It clearly violates multiple policies that all employees must adhere to — including our Code of Conduct and Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, Retaliation, Standards of Conduct, and Workplace Concerns.”
For Context: The protests followed other instances of Google staff speaking out against the company's contract, with some leaving the company and alleging retaliation from Google.
How the Media Covered It: Coverage was common across the spectrum on Thursday morning. Echoing previous coverage of the protests, news about the firings from some right-rated outlets cast the Google employees as “pro-Palestinian,” with some articles highlighting criticism of the protesters. Meanwhile, coverage from the left tended to describe the protesters in a more neutral manner; some articles described “years” of tensions at Google over the Israel contract. This summary was developed with the help of AllSides' AI technology.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Right
Google fires 28 employees involved in sit-in protest over $1.2B Israel contract
Google has fired 28 employees over their participation in a 10-hour sit-in at the search giant’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, to protest the company’s business ties with the Israel government, The Post has learned.
The pro-Palestinian staffers — who wore traditional Arab headscarves as they stormed and occupied the office of a top executive in California on Tuesday — were terminated late Wednesday after an internal investigation, Google vice president of global security Chris Rackow said in a companywide memo.
“They took over office spaces, defaced our property,...
From the Left
Google fires 28 employees over protest of cloud contract with Israel
Google fired 28 employees on Wednesday after sit-ins at the company's offices in protest of its cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.
Why it matters: The protests stemmed from long-brewing discontent among a group of Google and Amazon workers over claims that Israel is using the companies' services to harm Palestinians.
Context: The group of workers, called No Tech For Apartheid, organized sit-in demonstrations earlier this week at Google locations in New York City, Seattle and Sunnyvale, California to protest Project Nimbus.
Nimbus, which went into effect in July 2021, is a $1.2 billion artificial intelligence and...
From the Center
Google Fires 28 Workers Protesting Billion-Dollar Israeli Cloud Contract
Google fired 28 employees on Wednesday after a number of workers at the company participated in a sit-in protest against its cloud contract with the Israeli government, a day after nine staffers were suspended and then arrested for participating in the protest.
The company announced the firings in an internal memo alleging the protesting workers “took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers.”
The protests took place on Tuesday at Google’s Sunnyvale and New York offices
The memo said their actions were “unacceptable, extremely disruptive,...
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