Google has fired 20 more of its employees over protests against the company’s cloud computing deal with Israel. The total number of workers fired since the last week due to the issue now stand at 50, an activist group representing the employees stated. A spokesperson for Google confirmed the news saying they had conducted an investigation into the protests on April 16 and found more employees who had participated in sit-ins at the company offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California.
The protests were first addressed in a memo shared by Google’s head of security, Chris Rackow who called the behaviour “unacceptable, extremely disruptive and threatening.” There were 28 employees who were initially fired after the investigation started.
Then, CEO Sundar Pichai sent another company-wide memo warning employees that they should not use the company as a “personal platform” or “fight over disruptive issues or debate politics.”
A spokesperson for the activist body called No Tech for Apartheid, Jane Chung shared in a report that Google was now firing “non-participating bystanders.”
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Project Nimbus, which is the deal signed by the Israeli government with Google and Amazon to provide Israel with cloud computing and AI services has reared its head since Israel’s attack on Gaza. Google has however clarified earlier that its technology is not used for deploying weapons or gathering intel.
