More than 900 employees at Alphabet Inc.’s Google have signed a petition demanding that the company sever ties with the US Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.
The petition cites Google contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, the two DHS agencies that have led the deportation effort. Fatal shootings of two US citizens in Minneapolis in recent weeks have accelerated opposition to the administration’s push to deport undocumented immigrants.
A spokesperson for Google declined to comment.
More than 1,700 tech workers have already signed a separate petition started in early January, calling for tech companies to sever contracts with ICE and for Big Tech leaders to call the White House to demand that ICE leave cities. Palantir Technologies Inc., which makes software for the agency, has become a lightning rod for criticism about the role of lucrative surveillance tech in ICE enforcement and deportation raids, becoming the focus of multiple street protests.
The Google workers who signed the petition span 16 product areas — with about 30% coming from Google Cloud — and allege that the company’s technology is being used to power “state violence and repression.” The petition highlights the use of Google Cloud in border surveillance and the role of generative AI in “operational efficiency” for agencies the workers claim are responsible for recent civilian deaths and humanitarian crises.
The criticism mirrors a wave of protests against tech giants due to work with immigration officials during President Donald Trump’s first term. In 2019, protesters interrupted a speech by Salesforce Inc.’s Marc Benioff at that company’s annual conference.
Employee activism has cropped up again in Trump’s second term, albeit at a more muted tone owing to a worsened tech job market. A group of workers at Microsoft Corp. have repeatedly criticized the company’s work with US immigration officials and the Israeli military.
In 2018, more than 4,000 employees at Google called for the cancellation of the company’s work on “Project Maven,” which used artificial intelligence tools to analyze drone footage. Google decided against renewing the contract and pledged not to use its AI for weapons, illegal surveillance and technologies that cause “overall harm.” It has since removed this pledge.
The latest petition, however, argues that Google has become a “prominent node” in the history of private-sector companies profiting from repression. It demands an immediate and live Q&A session for workers regarding Google’s Homeland Security and military contracts, and it seeks to make Google disclose ties — and declare red lines — around use of its products for state violence and repression.
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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