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In open letter, nearly 1,000 Google employees call for firm to cut ties with ICE
The petition alleged that Google's technology was being used to fuel the recent violence in the country.
Nearly 1,000 Google employees recently signed a petition where they demanded the company to cut alleged ties with the US department of homeland security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection CBP).
The petition alleged that Google's technology was being used to fuel the recent violence in the country, including the killing of Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti. “Google is powering this campaign of surveillance, violence, and repression. Cloud is helping to stitch together CBP surveillance systems along the border and nationwide, while also powering Palantir's ImmigrationOS system that ICE uses to track immigrants,” the petition read.
The employees also claimed that Google's generative AI was used by DHS and CBP for "workforce enablement" and “improving operational efficiency”.
“The Play Store has blocked the most effective ICE tracking apps for keeping our communities safe. YouTube has also been running ICE recruitment and self-deport' ads,” the letter read.
Google has not yet issued a statement on the letter.
“As the workers who provide the foundational labor in building this technology, we are horrified,” it added.
Demands
Seeking more signatures from employees in the letter that is titled ‘Googlers Demand: Worker Safety & ICE Contract Transparency’, employees said that they would send the letter to the company leaders and try to get a wide response on the issue.
“We are vehemently opposed to Google's partnerships with DHS, CBP, and ICE. 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 read.
- Acknowledge the danger and violence that workers face each day - Employees demanded proportional community responses like school shutdowns and mutual aid networks and leadership acknowledge the danger facing all US-based workers, and to publicly call for urgent government responses to this crisis.
- Host an emergency Q&A session for workers regarding our DHS, CBP, and military contracts - Employees demanded a US-based, live, and recorded Q&A session or an employee town hall with relevant leadership to field top questions from employees, without any AI summarization or question-collapsing.
- Protect all Googlers — from cafeteria workers to data center employees - Employees demand leadership implement appropriate worker safety measures to meet this moment, such as flexible work from home policies and legal and immigration support, for all workers.
- Disclose ties and declare red lines around use of our products for state violence and repression - Employees demand precise clarity about admissible applications of our Cloud and AI technology, and transparency and full disclosure about how DHS agencies like CBP and ICE are abusing our products.
