The
Israeli military’s reliance on Microsoft’s cloud technology and
artificial intelligence systems surged during the most intensive phase
of its bombardment of Gaza, leaked documents reveal.
The
files offer an inside view of how Microsoft deepened its relationship
with Israel’s defence establishment after 7 October 2023, supplying the
military with greater computing and storage services and striking at
least $10m in deals to provide thousands of hours of technical support.
Microsoft’s
deep ties with Israel’s military are revealed in an investigation by
the Guardian with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and a
Hebrew-language outlet, Local Call. It is based in part on documents
obtained by Drop Site News, which has published its own story.
[AS
ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO
READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP
SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and
conversations) THAT EMPOWER
DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE &
PEACE... and hopefully
Palestine]
CNN News : Google fires 28 employees for protesting Israel cloud deal
LondonCNN
—
Google has fired more than two dozen employees who protested
this week against the company’s cloud computing contract with the
Israeli government.
The workerswere dismissed after an
investigation found that they had staged protests inside Google’s
offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. In Sunnyvale, they
entered the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, according to a post on X by the group that organized the demonstration, No Tech For Apartheid.
Protesters held banners that read “No More Genocide For
Profit” and “We Stand with Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Googlers.”
A Google spokesperson told CNN Thursday that the protests
“were part of a long-standing campaign by a group of organizations and
people who largely don’t work” at the company.
“A small number of employee protesters entered and disrupted
a few of our locations. Physically impeding other employees’ work and
preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of
our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior. After refusing
multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to
remove them to ensure office safety,” the spokesperson added.
“We have so far concluded individual investigations that
resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will
continue to investigate and take action as needed.”
Alphabet Inc.’s Google has fired 28 employees after they were involved in protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon.com Inc. to provide the Israeli government with AI and cloud services.
The
protests, which were led by the No Tech for Apartheid organization,
took place Tuesday across Google offices in New York City, Seattle, and
Sunnyvale, California. Protesters in New York and California staged a
nearly 10-hour sit-in, with others documenting the action, including
through a Twitch livestream. Nine of them were arrested Tuesday evening
on trespassing charges.
Several
workers involved in the protests, including those who were not directly
engaged in the sit-in, received a message from the company’s Employee
Relations group informing them that they had been put on leave. Google
told the affected employees that it’s “keeping this matter as
confidential as possible, only disclosing information on a need to know
basis” in an email seen by Bloomberg. On Wednesday evening, the workers
were informed they were being dismissed by the company, according to a
statement from Google staff with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign.
“Physically
impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our
facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely
unacceptable behavior,” Google said in a statement about the protesters.... READ MORE
PLEASE NOTE ONLY BECAUSE OF GOOGLE I HAVE A LETTERS BLOG AND NOTES- Free Speech for Peace & Palestine
& As always please go to the original links to read the stories in full... and remember that once upon a time brave Black heroes sat at lunch counters in violation of American laws & policies. I am not advocating stopping any one from doing their job, or jeopardizing your own job at any company. Just be smart, be kind, and be careful.
