1y ago

During a presentation by an executive with Google’s Israel branch on Monday, a Google Cloud engineer stood up and shouted, “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide or surveillance.” They

During a presentation by an executive with Google’s Israel branch on Monday, a Google Cloud engineer stood up and shouted, “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide or surveillance.” They were later fired.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/8/24094687/google-israel-project-nimbus-employee-fired

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100 comments

that powers genocide
Great that he's standing up for himself!
or surveillance
...ok now why did you even send your resume to Google
- Wonder when he had his "are we the baddies" moment.
- Funny, but it's more complicated than reductive
  
  What is "it" in your sentence?
Sure did take him a long time to get upset about surveillance.
- I still think that better late than never
  
  Yeah it's hard to shame someone for not springing to challenge their employer on every little thing the moment they become aware of it. Sometimes it takes a bit for things to pile up to the point it's too much.
- It takes a lot of courage to throw away your job, potentially career and livelihood, for your principles.
  
  Really just the job, right? They can still get hired for their next job to not be evil.
  
  Guy worked at Google. Could have basically gotten a tech job anywhere with that on his resume.
- I'm sure your noble sacrifice for the cause dwarfs his.
  
  Thinking these are some kind of noble sacrifices that somehow create real change in the world is pretty funny. That's just not how corporations work.
  You think some google CEO is gonna go "oh gee, that engineer sure had a point. we better start caring about ethics again."?
  There's a difference between clickbaity stunts and effective protest.
- Nobody was worried when it was happening in the town over
  Nobody was worried when it was their neighbor
  Everybody lied to themselves when it was their friend
  And by the time it came to them there was nothing left but panic and dread.
  
  First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
  Ironic with the switcheroo on the last group
- Funny, but kind of not
- Perchance
  
  Unless..?
- Were
  
  Always
- That's the right word to use in this case regardless of your feelings on pronouns.
  
  I'm not the other commenter, but I'm fairly certain they're making a play on the title of this post, which just ends with "They."
- It's 2024
  
  I think it's a joke about the title ending at They, at least I assumed so.
  
  An astute observation
- Proper English.
  
  They're referring to the title.
“Earlier this week, an employee disrupted a coworker who was giving a presentation — interfering with an official company-sponsored event,” Google spokesperson Bailey Tomson says in an emailed statement. “This behavior is not okay, regardless of the issue, and the employee was terminated for violating our policies.”
I guess they've gone from 'disruptive' to 'disruption-averse'.
- World according to google.
  Abetting a genocide? A-OK.
  Speaking out against aiding a genocide? FORBIDDEN
  Wild how much "don't be evil" Was holding them back, innit?
The only one abiding by Google’s original Don’t Be Evil motto.
- That's why they had to fire him.
I absolutely understand the sentiment of that engineer, but I also understand why they were fired. Maybe they wanted to get fired to make their point, but if they didn't, yelling at an executive during a meeting is always a good way to get yourself fired no matter what that executive is saying.
So while I don't want anyone building such technology either, I hope that person knew the consequences they were facing.
- Getting fired is what makes this a story worth writing about. It was intentional.
  
  If they achieved their goal, fine. I am glad they spoke out.
- I find genocide to be worse than "breaking corporate code of conduct".
  
  Okay? But that doesn't mean they didn't do something that would have gotten them fired in any company.
- Usually engineers, while not always the most socially in tune people, aren’t total dumbasses. He also said (very publicly) that he refuses to do the work they are telling him to do so he’s explicitly telling them to fire him.
  
  I've known a lot of engineers and only known two who weren't total dumbasses. Are you sure about your assertion?
- I have exactly 1 trick to get away with letting out your righteous anger at executives: become such a visible figure in collective action that there is no way the company could ever fire you without it being illegal retaliation. The trick is to become that visible while having plausible deniability about organizing
- You don't engage in that kind of direct action without being fully aware of the consequences. An engineer at Google is not that idiotic
  
  You don’t engage in that kind of direct action without being fully aware of the consequences.
  I would hope not, but you never know.
  An engineer at Google is not that idiotic
  I definitely would not go that far. https://futurism.com/blake-lemoine-google-interview
- They were probably trying to get the other engineers to follow their lead. It doesn't seem like that happened.
  
  "I am Spartacus!"
  Everyone else: "Yeah, he's Spartacus."
  
  Weird assumption to make based on nothing.
  
  If that was their plan, they really should have found out who was with them before doing it.
- I bet if they yelled something less controversial like "We want more money!" wouldn't have ended in firing. Perhaps in disciplining instead.
  
  I doubt it. Engineers don't get to yell at executives at meetings.
- I actually don't understand their sentiment.
  This isn't the only surveillance Google is enabling. You could MAYBE argue genocide but... let's just say it isn't just facebook that supports brutal regimes.
  I've worked for.... questionable companies in the past. I still argue that you more or less can't do Research without getting blood on your hands because... blood money spends well and experiments/development without a defined product is expensive.
  But... unless you are a complete moron, you understand that. Don't get me wrong, there are a LOT of graduate students out there who never question WHY there are government grants and why their advisor is talking to Major Johnson and so forth (Val Kilmer's Real Genius is probably the most accurate grad school movie ever made...). But you eventually figure it out. ESPECIALLY if you are working for a company and have to have a defined/target product. I know Google/Alphabet is notorious for the cutthroat/backstabbing among employees but you aren't going to be isolated as to why you are working on a graph search algorithm or how to conceal a camera in a device.
  So I don't know if this engineer was just ridiculously ignorant or if they were hoping to "go viral" or what. But you don't wake up one day and realize you are the baddies. You more or less realize that your first day of work and spend time deciding if that will lead to alcoholism or activism.
Respect.
respect
!degoogle@lemmy.ml
Good for him, but the ruling class has more than enough resources to replace him.
- O fük ruıt öf wïð ðæt feıtëlïzm.

100 comments