By Shahrokh Saei
Google, Amazon accused of complicity in Gaza massacres
TEHRAN- Big technology companies such as Google and Amazon have been accused of complicity in Israel’s war of genocide in the Gaza Strip which has claimed the lives of around 34,000 Palestinians.
Since Israel launched the Gaza war on October 7, a controversial contract between these two American companies and the regime has been pushed to the forefront of debate.
The $1.2 billion contract, known as Project Nimbus, was signed in 2021 to provide cloud services and data centers to the Israeli government and military.
On Tuesday, Google and Amazon workers held protests to vent their anger at the tech giants’ work with Israel. They demanded that the companies pull out of the contract.
Google employees staged sit-ins at its offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, California.
According to The Washington Post, New York Police Department officers arrested at least 9 protesters at Google’s offices.
Pro-Palestinian activists also gathered outside Google’s Seattle offices in South Lake Union, just a short distance from Amazon’s headquarters.
The events were organized by a group called “No Tech for Apartheid”.
“We want to end the project,” a protest organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement and a tech worker with Apple said.
Tariq Ra’ouf added, “We want to stop the funding for AI, machine learning [going] toward government programs that are actively participating in a genocide against innocent civilians.”
Google software engineer Emaan Haseem was among the protesters outside the company’s office in Sunnyvale.
“Not only is the lack of transparency concerning, but just the context of this contract taking place. We know the genocide taking place in Gaza is the first AI-powered genocide.
So, we find that Big Tech is streamlining this genocide against Palestinians,” Haseem said.
Nimbus supports Israel’s war
On April 12, Time Magazine reported that the Nimbus contract is specifically aiding Israel’s military efforts. Citing evidence, it said Google Cloud is providing services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, allowing the “ministry to store and process data, and access AI services.”
Protesters have expressed concern over the potential use of AI-enabled technology by Israel in the Gaza onslaught.
“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.
Zelda Montes, a software engineer at Google-owned YouTube, was one of the demonstrators during Tuesday’s sit-ins.
Google fired him in March after he stood up and protested during a speech by Google’s top executive in Israel at a conference in New York.
Referring to the Time Magazine report, Montes, said, “It’s deplorable that Google has been selling this technology to the Israeli government and military and lying to its employees about it.”
He also warned that other workers of the tech giant may be given the axe.
“We often have the privilege of looking the other way and not to have to think about the impact of our work on the world,” Montes said. “I have been waiting for months for people to be in the same position as me and be ready to put their job on the line.”
Project Nimbus has incited protests since it was signed. But protests have ramped up over the past seven months as Israel continues its brutal war on Gaza.
Following the signing of the contract Israeli officials said Project Nimbus “bars the firms from denying services to particular government entities.” This raised concerns among some tech employees that their work could be used for military purposes.
A professor of information studies at UCLA told Al Jazeera that “there’s a shocking lack of transparency” over Google’s Project Nimbus that’s being used by the Israeli military in Gaza.
Ramesh Srinivasan said big technology companies working with Israel’s army could be found complicit in the attacks on civilians there.
“Corporate America Big Tech is actually aligned with many of the Israeli military’s actions. The fact that AI systems are being used indicates there’s a lack of regard by the Israeli state. Everybody knows these AI systems will make mistakes,” he added.
Earlier, UN rights experts condemned the purported use of artificial intelligence by Israel in Gaza which has resulted in an unprecedented toll on the civilian population in the Palestinian territory.
Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza over the past months. The regime has turned a blind eye to a ruling issued by the International Court of Justice which ordered the regime to take action to prevent acts of genocide.
The U.S. government has provided unwavering military support for Israel in its war on Gaza. American tech companies have now been implicated in Israel’s massacres in the Palestinian territory.
It seems that U.S. tech firms have turned into the lackeys of the Israeli regime.
As the regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to perpetrate atrocities, American tech companies like Google and Amazon are waiting on Israel hand and foot!
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