More than 500 Google workers on Wednesday signed a petition urging the search giant not to work with border agencies including US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The protest comes after CBP put out a request last month to partner with cloud service providers. Border agencies have been accused of human rights abuses for separating and detaining families. Google employees urged the company not to be “complicit” by providing services from cloud business, which makes $8 billion a year in sales.
“We demand that Google publicly commit not to support CBP, ICE, or ORR with any infrastructure, funding, or engineering resources, directly or indirectly, until they stop engaging in human rights abuses,” the petition says. “History is clear: the time to say NO is now. We refuse to be complicit.”
Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
This isn’t the first time Google employees have protested a government contract. Last year, Google workers spoke out against the company’s work with the Pentagon on Project Maven, an initiative to use artificial intelligence to improve the analysis of drone footage. The protest prompted 4,000 Google workers to sign a petition and a handful of employee resignations.
In response, Google said it would not renew the contract. Soon after, CEO Sundar Pichai released a set of principles to guide the company’s development of artificial intelligence. One of the principles is to not develop AI for weapons, but the company said it would still pursue military contracts.
- Google workers want plug pulled on plan for China search
- New Google Harassment Policy Falls Short of Worker Demands
- Google worker behind 'anti-diversity memo' claims role in censored Chinese Search engine
- Google workers walk out to protest office harassment
- Google reported to stop working on Maven, its government-licensed AI tech
- Jerry Nadler Runs Defense for Google Without Disclosing Company Was His Top Campaign Donor
- Google employees refuse to work on border agency cloud contract
- Google Gives Into Temp Worker Demands With Perks They Didn't Ask For
- Google workers hold sit-in to protest retaliation
- 'There are almost no women in power': Tokyo's female workers demand change
