- Google has admitted that it fired an employee who publicly protested against Israel.
- the employee stood up and shouted during a presentation by the managing director of Google Israel.
- The employee was protesting Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract between Google and the Israeli government.
A Google engineer who publicly protested a speech by the head of Google Israel is now out of a job.
The employee demonstrated Monday during a presentation by Google Israel Managing Director Barak Regev in New York City.
“I'm a software engineer at Google, and I refuse to build technology that promotes genocide, apartheid, and surveillance,” the employee shouted, according to a video of the event.
Google confirmed to CNBC on Friday that the company has laid off employees.
“Earlier this week, an employee disrupted an official company-sponsored event by interrupting a colleague during a presentation,” the company said in a statement to The Verge. “Regardless of the nature of the issue, this behavior is unacceptable. The employee violated our policies and was terminated.”
Google did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on Saturday.
Regev was speaking at Mind the Tech, the annual Israeli technology conference in New York City. The employees were protesting Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract between Google, Amazon, and the Israeli government.
Google employees have previously expressed concerns that Israel could use the contract for military aid. Google executives insist the contract is not being used to support military activities.
“Project Nimbus is putting Palestinian community members at risk,” the official said in the video.
In 2022, more than 100 people, including Google employees, protested Project Nimbus in front of Google's New York office following the resignation of Ariel Koren, an employee who spoke out against the project.
Google employees flooded the company's employee bulletin board with comments about Project Nimbus on Thursday, CNBC reported. The forum was to be used to submit questions to Google executives ahead of the International Women's Day Summit, which will be held on the same day, the report said.
According to the report, Google shut down the forum over the comments, which a company spokesperson said were “disruptive and divisive in the workplace.”
Monday's incident comes on the heels of last week's ouster of YouTube's entire music team. The Alphabet Union, which represents workers at Google's parent company, Said The team was fired before it even went to an Austin City Council meeting to promote a resolution calling for Google to negotiate, the company said.
A Google spokesperson told Business Insider that Cognizant, the professional services firm Alphabet contracted with the YouTube Music team, was responsible for terminating the employees, not Google.
“Agreements with suppliers across the company typically terminate at natural expiration dates agreed to with Cognizant,” the company said in a statement.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, has also faced calls for his resignation after the companies' recent failures in AI innovation. Google recently put its AI image generator, Gemini, on hold for creating historically inaccurate photos.
On February 28, Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider, joined 31 other media groups in filing a $2.3 billion lawsuit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses caused by the company's advertising practices. Ta.
On February 28, Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider, joined 31 other media groups in filing a $2.3 billion lawsuit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses caused by the company's advertising practices. Ta.
