Google and Amazon want more defense contracts, despite worker protests

Hundreds of Google workers and their supporters gathered near the company's downtown San Francisco offices Thursday, raising signs that read "No tech for apartheid" and chanting "Tech from Amazon and Google!" You can't say that you're neutral.

There were similar scenes in New York and Seattle as well as in Durham, NC. Tech workers from other companies joined the rallies of the two companies. They all came together to protest the Israeli government's contract with Amazon and others.

Google documents published by The Intercept show the contract includes AI technology such as face detection, video analysis, and sentiment analysis. Opponents of the deal worry the Israeli military could use the technology to expand surveillance of Palestinians living in occupied territories and violate human rights.

In an email, Atle Erlingsson wrote that the company supports many governments. He acknowledged that the contract will give Israel's military access to Google technology, but he said that the work is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workload. A request for comment was not responded to by Amazon.

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After thousands of workers signed a letter in protest of a Pentagon contract for drones, the demonstrations retread familiar territory for the company. Dozens of employees resigned over the deal, which caused uproar from academics. The company published a set of principles meant to be ethical guideposts after it said it wouldn't be renewing the contract.

Some of the promises made to the employees who oppose Project Nimbus include a pledge to not pursue technologies that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms or breaching international law and human rights. Israel is called anapartheid state by Human Rights Watch.

During the height of the Maven protests in May of last year, Aniran Chandravongsri joined the cloud division of the company. He says seeing the outcry made him feel a little bit more comfortable joining the search engine. Over the years, he has signed petitions protesting the company's work with police departments and US Customs and Border Patrol, but he decided to take a leadership role in the pushback

Chandravongsri's parents were born in Laos. During the 1960s and 1970s, the CIA-led bombing campaigns left a legacy of unexploded bombs that still threaten lives today. He says he was scared when he read the capabilities in Project Nimbus.