Google fires 28 employees after protest over Israel cloud contract

Google fired 28 employees in connection with sit-in protests at two of its offices this week, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge. The firings come after 9 employees were suspended and then arrested in New York and California on Tuesday.

In a memo sent to all employees on Wednesday, Chris Rackow, Google’s head of global security, said that “behavior like this has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it.”

He also warned that the company would take more action if needed: “The overwhelming majority of our employees do the right thing. If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again. The company takes this extremely seriously, and we will continue to apply our longstanding policies to take action against disruptive behavior — up to and including termination.”

NeoNachtwaechter,

“but some are more equal than others”
– George Orwell

0x0,

One more reason to degoogle.

frankgrimeszz,

“Don’t be evil”

danc4498,

Don’t beavil. And they haven’t yet.

jonne,

They dropped that one quietly a couple of years ago. I guess around the time they started doing contracts for Israel?

Edit: just Googled what this project nimbus is all about, and it sounds like basically building data centres in Israel, which is fair enough, but it ends with this titbit:

The terms Israel set for the project contractually forbid Amazon and Google from halting services due to boycott pressure.[7][8] The tech companies are also forbidden from denying service to any particular government entities.[8]

That’s not something you put in your contract unless you’re planning on doing something that’ll attract boycotts

huginn,

They didn’t drop it. It was still in the handbook in 2022 when I signed it.

People like to claim they dropped it: but it’s still there.

Now since I was laid off in the mass 2023 wave I can’t speak to it’s current state but I’d be shocked if they removed it.

realbadat,

It was dropped by alphabet from their handbook.

Almost 10 years ago iirc.

huginn,

My guy I literally worked there and signed the employee handbook. Don’t Be Evil was right before you signed if I remember right. Regardless: it is 100% in the handbook.

realbadat, (edited )

Alphabet <> Google.

The parent company, Alphabet, removed it from the handbook. I couldn’t tell you if they put it back in, but Alphabet removed it about 10 years ago.

This is not some conspiracy theory, it was released, they replaced that section of the handbook.

ETA:

Following Google’s corporate restructuring under the conglomerate Alphabet Inc. in October 2015, Alphabet took “Do the right thing” as its motto, also forming the opening of its corporate code of conduct.[1][2][3][4][5] The original motto was retained in Google’s code of conduct, now a subsidiary of Alphabet. Between 21 April and 4 May 2018, the motto was removed from the code of conduct’s preface and retained in its last sentence.[6]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil

www.engadget.com/…/alphabet-do-the-right-thing/

fastcompany.com/…/why-google-was-smart-to-drop-it…

time.com/4060575/alphabet-google-dont-be-evil/

web.archive.org/web/…/code-of-conduct.html

www.searchenginejournal.com/…/254019/

Your memory of the Google handbook isn’t really relevant.

huginn,

The original motto was retained in Google’s code of conduct, now a subsidiary of Alphabet. Between 21 April and 4 May 2018, the motto was removed from the code of conduct’s preface and retained in its last sentence.[6]

The original motto was retained.

You’re mistaking “it’s not the first line” with “it got removed”

Linking news articles from click bait sites doesn’t help your argument.

realbadat,

Dude.

Please read what I said. ALPHABET.

ALPHABET HAS A DIFFERENT HANDBOOK. I have said this multiple times now.

And I will say again - Alphabet copied the handbook in restructuring then removed it.

The Google handbook IS NOT RELEVANT AT ALL. READ WHAT I WROTE.

howrar,

The article is about Google. Why does it matter that it’s missing from the Alphabet handbook?

realbadat,

They commented “I don’t know why people keep saying they removed it”.

People say that because it was big news when alphabet, in restructuring, removed/replaced it from their duplicate handbook. It was removed as the Google motto as well, and kept only in the last portion.

So why do people think Google removed it? Becase ten years ago it was big news that Alphabet removed it.

This ain’t rocket surgery.

howrar,

Oh, I see. You’re clarifying why jonne thought this was the case, not arguing for why they’re correct.

realbadat,

Correct.

Which the other person is consistently ignoring and getting salty about, and selectively ignoring my comments to be mad because “but Google has it in the handbook!” rather than actually read what I said.

Melt,

Is going on strike considered boycotting?

jonne,

I guess Google didn’t want to risk finding out.

egonallanon,

I mean for many (myself included) setting up shop in Israel is reason enough for boycotting an organisation.

mannycalavera,

That’s not something you put in your contract unless you’re planning on doing something that’ll attract boycotts

Would genocide count? 🤔

jonne,

Unfortunately it doesn’t appear to be enough for most western countries.

CosmicTurtle0,

The tech companies are also forbidden from denying service to any particular government entities.

That includes Palestine, right?

Right?

lemmyreader,

Didn’t expected Google to fire so many of the protesters :(

Here’s your place Google, good riddance! : killedbygoogle.com

AllNewTypeFace,
@AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space avatar

Does the US still have a Fortune 500-wide hiring blacklist for those who publicly criticise Israeli military operations? If so, they may have a hard time finding other employment.

Paris_6373784,

What a dumb workers lol

symthetics,

deleted_by_moderator

    •
    symthetics,

    Lol.

    Dariusmiles2123,

    Happy to be almost degoogled when I read such things.

    If only it was easy to get rid of YouTube…

    drasglaf,
    @drasglaf@sh.itjust.works avatar

    At least you can use things like NewPipe, or FreeTube (for now).

    dog_,

    Or GrayJay

    Dariusmiles2123,

    I might start trying that just to avoid giving money/data to Google. I just wonder if there is an app and if the creators would still get paid. Would someone know?

    JimboDHimbo,

    Nebula is one app I hear yt creators mention often. Specifically FD Signifier and Foreign Man in A Foreign Land, but there are many other creators who use it too. There is also Greyjay, which I think is built specifically for what you are asking.

    Dariusmiles2123,

    Yeah I tried Nebula a while ago but sadly it lacked the content I was looking for.

    I’m into Linux, cars and basketball and none if these were well represented. Maybe it’s different now.

    I’ll have a look at Greyjay.

    Peertube with some Patreon support is fine for Linux but not for the other parts too…

    Vex_Detrause,

    We have revance too for android.

    nivellian,
    @nivellian@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Revanced Extended (ReX) user here :)

    hahattpro,

    only fired 28 employees ? it is insignificant comparing to 12000 layoff last years.

    grrgyle,

    That’s because this was targeted.

    EnderMB,

    Well…if you believe Blind they are doing more layoffs today.

    JoeKrogan,
    @JoeKrogan@lemmy.world avatar

    I wonder If they were protesting some other interests such as against iran would they have been fired… Of course not. Countries and companies are bending over backwards for Israel.

    I hope the workers challange this in court.

    RidcullyTheBrown,

    I don’t want to take anything away from this protest. It worked about as well as everyone hoped. We’re talking about it in an international community. But come on, there was only one way this was going to end and it was with them getting fired regardless of the country/situation. The employees knew this as well, they probably have other jobs lined out already.

    GnuLinuxDude,
    @GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml avatar

    Ok so, “behavior like this has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it.”

    But secretly selling services to a genocidal ethnostate does belong in the Google workplace and will be tolerated? Palestinians just don’t matter if you can you make a dollar off of their death and destruction??

    time.com/…/google-contract-israel-defense-ministr…

    ipkpjersi,

    Well yeah, Google likes money.

    100_kg_90_de_belin,

    Somebody in this comment section didn’t get the memo

    independent.co.uk/…/google-boss-i-m-very-proud-of…

    cyberpunk007,

    Their new mantra is “be evil”.

    NegativeInf,

    Nah, it’s make money. Being evil is just another perk!

    lemmyreader,

    democracynow.org/…/no_tech_for_apartheid_google_i…

    the first AI-powered genocide

    I’m letting those words sink in

    ipkpjersi,

    What a wonderful future we are entering.

    xantoxis,

    That’ll fix it.

    Wanderer,

    I think it will.

    Depends what they see as the issue though.

    SitD,

    😎👍 joke’s on them i fired them from my phone

    nivellian,
    @nivellian@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Same here on my PC, switched to Firefox and using duckduckgo.com to search the web

    vinyl,

    I decided to try out Kagi, I appreciate duckduckgo for privacy but jeez does it suck at being a search engine. Kagi is trying to be a 1:1 google search but without ads and tracking, you may ask how they operate? They charge 10 bucks a month which is a downside I’m willing to take.

    Jamil,

    Looking for more ideas how to boycott Google.

    No longer using Chrome No longer using google search.

    Somehow get off Gmail? Android gapps? Delete reviews?

    Potatos_are_not_friends,

    Unpopular opinion but boycotting Google doesn’t work.

    Instead, get real inside the house.

    • Be such a great Contributor to Google Maps.
    • Be a manager of a team.
    • Work on critical systems.

    Then casually start breaking shit. Woops, didn’t mean to add all this spam to Google maps. Didn’t mean to cancel another service. Didn’t mean to make search shittyer.

    And if you do it correctly, you’ll get paid AND nobody will be the wiser since they’re already doing all those things.

    mlg,
    @mlg@lemmy.world avatar

    Poor dude doesn’t know google already did this themselves by killing their project teams and bringing a team of summer interns every year to decrease the cloud cost of each app.

    They don’t have to worry because they already own the market on all these apps so any competitor can be bought out or is doomed to fail.

    That way they can spend all their allocated budget on new ventures like Gemini.

    For example Google Maps has sucked total ******* **** for a whole ass decade now, and the people who made Android Auto have a special place for them in FOSS hell.

    Potatos_are_not_friends,

    Poor dude doesn’t know google already did this themselves

    https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/33555a36-fc01-4988-8714-06a648d10a12.jpeg

    prole,

    LOL

    vikingtons,
    @vikingtons@lemmy.world avatar

    There’s FOSS apps from fdroid, fairemail or protonmail or something of the sort, CalyxOS or GrapheneOS (ironically targets the Pixel series primarily, though they sometimes sell these at a loss around the holiday season).

    Gluten6970,

    The Proton suite of apps have 1:1 replacements for the entire Gsuite. Some things are locked behind a subscription (email is fully free), so if you’re not into that there’s NextCloud if you can/want to self-host. Tuta is also a decent Gmail replacement. As for Gapps, there isn’t really any good replacements; MicroG breaks a lot of things and sandboxed google play services is the only other alternative (which is only available on GrapheneOS afaik).

    sugar_in_your_tea,

    The Proton suite of apps have 1:1 replacements for the entire Gsuite

    That’s just not true, they don’t have office applications or video chat. I wish they did though. Also, their storage is pretty expensive.

    Their email is pretty good though, and they have a decent VPN service as well.

    Gluten6970, (edited )

    they don’t have office applications or video chat

    Oh right, true. I forget Google has those.

    sugar_in_your_tea,

    Google Sheets is the last thing really holding my back from abandoning Google. It’s just so convenient, and I’m more comfortable with it than LibreOffice. I like that I can edit things on my phone, which I haven’t found an alternative for.

    Gluten6970,

    OnlyOffice

    sugar_in_your_tea,

    Does that support something like the GOOGLEFINANCE API, or at least some kind of scripting where I could add it? I really like looking up stock quotes.

    DaCrazyJamez,

    Not that I am a fan of google, but those people signed a contract that prohibits certain behavior, so I cant really blame the company this time.

    Linkerbaan,
    @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

    Google had a “don’t be evil” clause as well.

    Potatos_are_not_friends,

    I wonder if after 2018 when they removed that line, people went, “Finally!” And twirled their evil mustache.

    Natanael,

    Not everything is legal to prohibit

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