Google and Amazon workers held protests on Tuesday in Seattle and other tech hubs, demonstrating in opposition to the tech giants’ role in a cloud services contract with the Israeli government.
About 50 workers and pro-Palestinian activists gathered outside Google’s Seattle offices in South Lake Union, just a short distance from Amazon’s headquarters.
The two tech companies are part of a $1.2 billion contract called Project Nimbus that provides cloud services and data centers to the Israeli government. The 3-year-old project has incited protests in the past, but the concern is amplified by Israel’s ongoing and deadly war in Gaza.
“We want to end the project,” said Tariq Ra’ouf, a protest organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement and a tech worker with Apple. “We want to stop the funding for AI, machine learning [going] toward government programs that are actively participating in a genocide against innocent civilians.”
Ra’ouf said Google and Amazon employees participated in the protest in Seattle.
In California, protesters staged a sit-in at the Sunnyvale office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, while protesting workers in New York City occupied a common space in one of Google’s buildings, according to the Washington Post. Protesters also gathered outdoors in San Francisco, Wired reported. The events were organized by a group called No Tech for Apartheid.
Time last week cited evidence showing the Nimbus contract is specifically aiding military efforts. Time reported that Google Cloud is providing services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, allowing the “ministry to store and process data, and access AI services.”
The potential use of AI-enabled technology to support war efforts such as guiding drones and conducting bombing is of great concern to the protesters.
“It is more important than ever that we put attention to where we use AI and machine learning, especially when it comes to wars,” Ra’ouf said.
At the Seattle event, protesters carried signs and chanted their opposition to the tech companies’ involvement with Israel. The protest lasted about two hours.
The day before, protesters blocked an expressway leading to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for three hours, resulting in the police arrest of 46 people, according to the Seattle Times. The event was part of demonstrations held nationwide.
