The logo for Google LLC is considered on the Google Store Chelsea in Long island, Modern York, Nov. 17, 2021.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
More than 900 Google workers dangle signed an start letter condemning fresh actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Safety (CBP), urging the tech huge to narrate its dealings with the agencies and divest from them.
The letter, citing fresh ICE killings of Keith Porter, Renee Real, and Alex Pretti, said that the workers are “appalled by the violence” and “horrified” by Google’s portion in it.
“Google is powering this campaign of surveillance, violence, and repression,” the letter reads.
It goes on to cite that Google Cloud is aiding CBP surveillance and powering Palantir’s ImmigrationOS procedure, which is frail by ICE. The letter states that Google’s generative artificial intelligence is frail by CBP and that the Google Play Store has blocked ICE tracking apps.
The letter also quotes a social media post by Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean from early January, who wrote, “We all bear a collective responsibility to speak up and not be silent when we see things like the events of the last week.”
“We are vehemently opposed to Google’s partnerships with DHS, CBP, and ICE,” the workers wrote. “We consider it our leadership’s ethical and policy-bound responsibility to disclose all contracts and collaboration with CBP and ICE, and to divest from these partnerships.”
The letter calls on Google to acknowledge the possibility that workers face from ICE, host an emergency inner Q&A on the firm’s DHS and militia contracts, put in drive security measures to present protection to workers — reminiscent of versatile work-from-dwelling policies and immigration help — and existing its ties with the authorities agencies to lend a hand all alive to settle where the firm will device a line.
“As workers of conscience, we demand that our leadership end our backslide into contracting for governments enacting violence against civilians,” the letter reads. “Google is now a prominent node in a shameful lineage of private companies profiting from violent state repression. We must use this moment to come together as a Googler community and demand an end to this disgraceful use of our labor.”
Google did no longer straight away respond to a CNBC query for comment.
The letter comes as workers place mounting rigidity on tech CEOs to communicate out against ICE. Correct two weeks prior, workers representing Amazon, Spotify, Meta and more wrote a similar letter annoying ICE “out of our cities.”