In a development coming from the home state of all things tech, California, dozens of workers took over the office of Google's cloud service, Google Cloud Platform CEO's office in Sunnyvale over the company's strategic support to Israel.
Drop NIMBUS For Israel
This protest is with regards to Google Cloud Platform's assistance to Project NIMBUS. NIMBUS is a cloud computing system of the Benjamin Netanyahu-led Israeli government and the Israeli Defence Force, that was announced in 2021.
Google along with Amazon (Amazon Web Services) was awarded with a lucrative contract amounting to USD 1.2 billion. Under this contract, both the aforementioned American companies will provide their established cloud services, along with assistance on other fronts including artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The employees, who were protesting at the California campus, held banners reading, 'No More Genocide For Profit', 'Stop Silencing workers', something addressing the growing frustration among many in the US over the dire developments in Gaza. In addition, some posters/ banners also directly addressed the CEO of the cloud division, saying, 'Thomas Kurrian, Drop NIMBUS'.
The workers have reportedly vowed to not budge, until the cloud projecting service is dropped by the Alphabet-owned.
In addition, workers in New York are also said to have occupied offices in the New York headquarters of the company.
Horrors of Gaza
This comes at a time, when there is growing concern over Israel and the IDF's foolhardy actions, resulting in abhorrent casualties. As according to primary data that is available, the past six months have seen bloodshed like no other. This Israeli onslaught has already resulted in the unfortunate death of over 30,000 Gazans.
And the aid of technology and what it could do, has perhaps alarmed many, especially who work with the tech giants of the world. Voices of dissent have slowly emerged throughout the world, as the atrocities rose with casualties, putting the spotlight on the Jewish state. The pressure on the country only grew after the death of aid workers from World Central Kitchen, leading to more condemnation.
