Google workers arrested after nine-hour protest in cloud chief’s office

Nine


Google
workers
were
arrested
on
trespassing
charges
Tuesday
night
after
staging
a
sit-in
at
the
company’s
offices
in
New
York
and
Sunnyvale,
California,
including
a
protest
in
Google
Cloud
CEO
Thomas
Kurian’s
office.

The
arrests,
which
were
livestreamed
on
Twitch
by
participants,
follow
rallies
outside
Google
offices
in
New
York,
Sunnyvale
and
Seattle,
which
attracted
hundreds
of
attendees,
according
to
workers
involved.
The
protests,
led
by
the “No
Tech
for
Apartheid”
organization,
focused
on
Project
Nimbus
—
Google
and
Amazon’s
joint
$1.2
billion
contract
to
provide
the
Israeli
government
and
military
with
cloud
computing
services,
including
artificial
intelligence
tools,
data
centers
and
other
cloud
infrastructure.

Protesters
in
Sunnyvale
sat
in
Kurian’s
office
for
more
than
nine
hours
until
their
arrests,
writing
demands
on
Kurian’s
whiteboard
and
wearing
shirts
that
read “Googler
against
genocide.”
In
New
York,
protesters
sat
in
a
three-floor
common
space.
Five
workers
from
Sunnyvale
and
four
from
New
York
were
arrested.

“On
a
personal
level,
I
am
opposed
to
Google
taking
any
military
contracts
—
no
matter
which
government
they’re
with
or
what
exactly
the
contract
is
about,”
Cheyne
Anderson,
a
Google
Cloud
software
engineer
based
in
Washington,
told
CNBC. “And
I
hold
that
opinion
because
Google
is
an
international
company
and
no
matter
which
military
it’s
with,
there
are
always
going
to
be
people
on
the
receiving
end…
represented
in
Google’s
employee
base
and
also
our
user
base.”
Anderson
had
flown
to
Sunnyvale
for
the
protest
in
Kurian’s
office
and
was
one
of
the
workers
arrested
Tuesday.

“Google
Cloud
supports
numerous
governments
around
the
world
in
countries
where
we
operate,
including
the
Israeli
government,
with
our
generally
available
cloud
computing
services,”
a
Google
spokesperson
told
CNBC,
adding, “This
work
is
not
directed
at
highly
sensitive,
classified,
or
military
workloads
relevant
to
weapons
or
intelligence
services.”

The
demonstrations
show
Google’s
increased
pressure
from
workers
who
oppose
military
use
of
its
AI
and
cloud
technology.
Last
month,
Google
Cloud
engineer
Eddie
Hatfield
interrupted
a
keynote
speech
from
the
managing
director
of
Google’s
Israel
business
stating, “I
refuse
to
build
technology
that
powers
genocide.”
Hatfield
was

subsequently
fired.
That
same
week,
an
internal
Google
employee
message
board
was
shut
down
after
staffers
posted
comments
about
the
company’s
Israeli
military
contracts.
A
spokesperson
at
the
time
described
the
posts
as “divisive
content
that
is
disruptive
to
our
workplace.”

On
Oct.
7, Hamas
carried
out
deadly
attacks
on
Israel,
killing
1,200
and
taking
more
than
240
hostages. 
The
following
day,
Israel
declared
war
and
began
implementing
a
siege
of
Gaza,
cutting
off
access
to
power,
food,
water
and
fuel.
At
least
33,899
people
have
been
killed
in
the
Gaza
Strip
since
that
date,
the
enclave’s
Health
Ministry said
Wednesday in
a
statement
on
Telegram.
In
January
at
the
U.N.’s
top
court,
Israel rejected
genocide
charges brought
by
South
Africa.

The
Israeli
Ministry
of
Defense

reportedly
sought
consulting
services
from
Google
to
expand
its
access
to
Google
Cloud
services.
Google
Photos
is
one

platform
used
by
the
Israeli
government
to
conduct
surveillance
in
Gaza,
according
to
The
New
York
Times.

“I
think
what
happened
yesterday
is
evidence
that
Google’s
attempts
to
suppress
all
of
the
voices
of
opposition
to
this
contract
are
not
only
not
working
but
actually
having
the
opposite
effect,”
Ariel
Koren,
a
former
Google
employee
who
resigned
in
2022
after
leading
efforts
to
oppose
the
Project
Nimbus
contract,
told
CNBC. “It’s
really
just
creating
more
agitation,
more
anger
and
more
commitment.”

The
New
York
sit-in
started
at
noon
ET
and
ended
around
9:30
p.m.
ET.
Security
asked
workers
to
remove
their
banner,
which
spanned
two
floors,
about
an
hour
into
the
protest,
according
to
Hasan
Ibraheem,
a
Google
software
engineer
based
in
New
York
City
and
one
of
the
arrested
workers.

“I
realized, ‘Oh,
the
place
that
I
work
at
is
very
complicit
and
aiding
in
this
genocide
—
I
have
a
responsibility
to
act
against
it,””
Hasan
Ibraheem,
a
Google
software
engineer
based
in
New
York
City,
told
CNBC.
Ibraheem
added, “The
fact
that
I
am
receiving
money
from
Google
and
Israel
is
paying
Google
—
I
am
receiving
part
of
that
money,
and
that
weighed
very
heavily
on
me.”

The
New
York
workers
were
released
from
the
police
station
after
about
four
hours.

The
nine
arrested
workers
in
New
York
and
Sunnyvale
told
CNBC
that,
during
the
protest,
they
were
locked
out
of
their
work
accounts
and
offices,
placed
on
administrative
leave,
and
told
to
wait
to
return
to
work
until
being
contacted
by
HR.

The
workers
were
also
protesting
their
labor
conditions
—
namely “that
the
company
stop
the
harassment,
intimidation,
bullying,
silencing,
and
censorship
of
Palestinian,
Arab,
Muslim
Googlers
—
and
that
the
company
address
the
health
and
safety
crisis
workers,
especially
those
in
Google
Cloud,
are
facing
due
to
the
potential
impacts
of
their
work,”
according
to
a
release
by
the
campaign.

“A
small
number
of
employee
protesters
entered
and
disrupted
a
couple
of
our
locations,”
a
Google
spokesperson
told
CNBC. “Physically
impeding
other
employees’
work
and
preventing
them
from
accessing
our
facilities
is
a
clear
violation
of
our
policies,
and
we
will
investigate
and
take
action.
These
employees
were
put
on
administrative
leave
and
their
access
to
our
systems
was
cut.
After
refusing
multiple
requests
to
leave
the
premises,
law
enforcement
was
engaged
to
remove
them
to
ensure
office
safety.”