As protests against police brutality and systemic racism continue across the country, Google employees demand that their company review its relationship with the police.
A petition to CEO Sundar Pichai that began circulating on Wednesday calls on the company to stop selling all of its products to the police and has obtained more than 1,600 signatures.
“Americans are grappling with the historical legacies of slavery and genocide on which the country is based, and have begun to identify the role of the police forces in maintaining a fundamentally white supremacist system. Demand for removal of the Police have increased in city after city, as the first step to end that system permanently, “the petition states, according to Gizmodo.
The search giant is no stranger to employee dissent regarding its relationship with the US military and police. USA In 2018, several employees resigned, and more than 3,100 employees asked Pichai to end a controversial AI military program known as the Maven Project. Some employees who organized the mass strike in November 2018, which protested sexual harassment and racial inequality, later said they faced retaliation, a charge the company denied.
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A participant holding a sign saying “Abolish the Police” at the protest outside the Barclays Center. (Photo by Erik McGregor / LightRocket via Getty Images)
“We are disappointed to learn that Google is still selling to law enforcement, announcing that its connection to law enforcement is somewhat progressive, and is seeking more expansive sales rather than severing ties to the police and joining the millions who they want to defang and underfund these institutions, “says the last letter. “Why help the institutions responsible for George Floyd’s Knee in Neck be more organizationally effective?”
Google isn’t just working with law enforcement or the military. Salesforce has a contract with Customs and Border Patrol (CPB). Amazon recently imposed a one-year ban on selling its facial recognition technology to the police, but previously it had worked with hundreds of departments across the country.
As the Black Lives Matter protests have continued, Google pledged millions of dollars to racial justice organizations in the wake of widespread protests against police brutality and racism. But in the petition, his employees are calling for more radical changes.
“The racist legacy of the police in the United States goes back to its roots, when the police forces arose to protect the wealth obtained from slavery and genocide,” the petition says. “We have a long way to go to address the full legacy of racism, but to begin with, we should not be in the business of capitalizing on the racist police.”
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Google CEO Sundar Pichai is seen above. A group of tech giant employees are unhappy with the company’s relations with the police.
((AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite))
In response to the request, Google provided the following statement to Fox News:
“We are committed to the work that makes a significant difference to combat systemic racism, and our employees have made more than 500 product suggestions in the past few weeks, which we are reviewing,” said a Google spokesperson.
“In this case, we were the first major company to decide, years ago, not to do facial recognition commercially, and we have very clear AI principles that prohibit its use or sale for surveillance. We have long-standing terms of use for generally available computing platforms such as Gmail, GSuite and Google Cloud Platform, and these products will remain available for use by governments and local authorities, including police departments. “
