Google CEO Forbids Political Talk After Firing 28 Over Israeli Contract Protest (yahoo.com) 133
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fortune: Google CEO Sundar Pichai has weighed in on the debate over the relative values of political expression and workplace coexistence by ordering employees to leave their political opinions at home. A day after firing 28 workers for participating in a sit-in protest of the tech giant's cloud contract with Israel, Pichai warned staff that the office is not a place "to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics" in a company blog post.
Although Pichai didn't specifically mention the protests or the Israel-Hamas war, he concluded that the $1.92 trillion company "is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform." "We have a duty to be an objective and trusted provider of information that serves all of our users globally," Pichai continued. "When we come to work, our goal is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. That supersedes everything else and I expect us to act with a focus that reflects that." The sit-in protest was staged against Google's involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud contract with the Israeli government. During the nearly 10-hour protest, employees wore "Googler against genocide" T-shirts and occupied the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian.
The report notes how tech companies, "previously famed for their progressive culture where nap pods and abortion benefits were welcome," are increasingly restricting political discussions to avoid internal conflict. Pichai notes in his memo that Google has previously enjoyed "a culture of vibrant, open discussion that enables us to create amazing products and turn great ideas into action."
Although Pichai didn't specifically mention the protests or the Israel-Hamas war, he concluded that the $1.92 trillion company "is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform." "We have a duty to be an objective and trusted provider of information that serves all of our users globally," Pichai continued. "When we come to work, our goal is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. That supersedes everything else and I expect us to act with a focus that reflects that." The sit-in protest was staged against Google's involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud contract with the Israeli government. During the nearly 10-hour protest, employees wore "Googler against genocide" T-shirts and occupied the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian.
The report notes how tech companies, "previously famed for their progressive culture where nap pods and abortion benefits were welcome," are increasingly restricting political discussions to avoid internal conflict. Pichai notes in his memo that Google has previously enjoyed "a culture of vibrant, open discussion that enables us to create amazing products and turn great ideas into action."
Excellent! (Score:5, Insightful)
Want to do activism, go do activism on your free time.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Excellent! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
No, this I don't agree with. But I still think that political activism at work is bad.
Re: (Score:2)
The 'peons' can, in fact, 'do activism.' On their own time. They can contribute their own money, they can give up their own time.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, that's one of the points of being a company.
And you, and other people, are free to stop using that company's services if you don't like their political activism.
Re: (Score:2)
I guess they can say, "But I was only following orders." in the unlikely event that anyone's held to account for it.
Re: (Score:2)
You talk about Hamas, right? And Hezbollah. I totally agree, people should refuse being recruited to support those.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Want to do activism, go do activism on your free time.
You gonna tell their search engine? Someone should.
Re: Excellent! (Score:4, Interesting)
Ah yes the whole "if you're against Apartheid, occupation, and genocide then you must hate Jews" line.
The world doesn't buy it any more, but please keep it up. It's amusing.
Re: (Score:1)
No but I am against mass murder, mass rape and mass hostage taking. How about you?
Re: Excellent! (Score:1, Troll)
Israel has literally thousands of hostages, has documented hundreds of cases of raping those hostages, has burned people alive, and is engaged in mass murder.
So, you're against all the things that Israel does then?
Re: (Score:2)
Citations.
Re: Excellent! (Score:4, Informative)
Ask and ye shall receive!
Hostages:
BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world... [bbc.com]
HRW: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/... [hrw.org]
NPR: https://www.npr.org/2023/12/01... [npr.org]
Mass rape:
CBS: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/i... [cbsnews.com]
The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2024/... [theintercept.com]
NBC: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/w... [nbcnews.com]
Murder / Deliberate targeting of civilians:
B'Tselem: https://www.btselem.org/topic/... [btselem.org]
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/co... [theguardian.com]
UN: https://www.un.org/unispal/doc... [un.org]
Among those links is this golden nugget of a quote:
When an 11-year-old Palestinian girl from Nablus was killed by settlers in 1983, in their defense, the chief rabbi of the Sephardic community reportedly cited a Talmudic text justifying killing an enemy on occasions when one may see from a child's perspective that he or she will grow up to become your enemy. Rabbis have been asked by settler militants to provide rulings to justify acts that are aimed to block peace with, or the return of land to, Palestinians. The theft of Palestinian olive harvests has been justified by some rabbis. Former chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu stated that: "Since the land is the inheritance of the People of Israel, planting on this land by gentiles is planting on land that does not belong to them. If someone puts a tree on my land, both the tree and the fruit it yields belongs to me."
So... that's the side you're on is it? It figures. Americans are retards who mindlessly swallow whatever the red/blue media channel they favour feeds them. Facts be dammed.
Re: Excellent! (Score:5, Informative)
This is also under conditions in western media where unsubstantiated claims made by the IDF & Israeli spokespersons are treated at fact & strong evidence of abuses & crimes committed by them are routinely either dismissed or not reported at all.
The IDF are also deliberately targeting journalists in an attempt to reduce reporting & documenting of their crimes.
Re: Excellent! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
inb4: no, the Bible is not a historically reliable document.
Re: (Score:2)
If your idea of winning an argument is to pretend I said things I never did, why even bother joining the conversation?
MrNaz claimed Israel supporters often make arguments based on starting "halfway through the story". So I asked him where the story's start point really is. I know what his answer likely is, but unlike you, I refuse to assume the worst about people I'm debating.
Re: (Score:2)
End of WWI - British Empire takes over occupation of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire.
1948 - The British Empire "gives" (surrenders?) half of Palestine to Jewish Zionist settlers led by violent extremist terrorist paramilitary organisations Haganah, Irgun, & Lehi (look them up!). The new Israeli "state" takes over occupation (& the existing fences, prisons, & torture chambers that the British o
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Occupation's bad, mmmkay?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Excellent! (Score:1)
You've been spending too long on Twitter. You're mentally copypasting the bullshit that gets uncritically thrown around there.
Re: (Score:1)
No but I am against mass murder, mass rape and mass hostage taking. How about you?
Well it depends on how much money it costs. Stop Palestinians, sure pretty cheap. Stop Russia, nah too expensive.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
You see, the IDF aren't very imaginative so all they can think up to accuse others of is what they've been doing themselves... for decades.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The level of specificity in Israel's accusations against others when compared against what they are actually doing is actually comical. It's like they take their own SOP manuals, send it to the American media, and say "here, just say the Palestinians are doing this".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Can both sides commit crimes in a conflict? Yes, absolutely.
Does the US -need- to get involved in anyone else's conflicts? No, absolutely not unless we have signed a treaty in which case we theoretically should do so in general but not at the expense of our own destruction.
Is there a credible path to peace? I believe so but not while Hamas and Hezbollah are functioning and while Iran is funding and supplying them.
Is there a US interest? Yes. Stability in the Middle East it's important to the US strategic
Re: (Score:2)
Separately, its not clear Iran is any threat to the US, other than their threat to Israel, in fact if the US was not supporting Israel, its not clear why Iran would have any source of conflict with us. Hezbollah an Hamas are prett
Re: (Score:2)
Many major news organizations have been caught lying through their teeth about what's been going on. It wasn't you so I'm not trying to pin this one on you but someone else claimed there is tons of documented evidence of Israeli war crimes, rapes, etc. If there was it would be all over the net.
Iran has sponsored terrorism back to the fall of the Shah and take over by the Islamic mullahs. That's literally how they got their start taking the US embassy and holding hostages for 400+ days. Since then they h
Re: Excellent! (Score:2)
"we can choose to not support EITHER"
That's pretty much exactly what the pro-Palestinian groups are asking for. No one's expecting the U.S. to arm a violent revolution of Palestinians against Israel.
Re: (Score:2)
And in the Torah is has the prohibition of an "eye for an eye". That does not mean is approving of retaliation and revenge, instead it is a PROHIBITION against taking two eyes for an eye, or killing 20 Palestineans in revenge for one Israeli death. Count the death count on both sides, and the economic costs on both sides and see whether or not they are leading the holy lives that they claim. Why why is Lebanon in this war, including bombing areas that are not even Hezbollaw areas, are they just there bec
Re: (Score:2)
Why are you bringing the Torah into this? No one has claimed Israel follows the Torah. Israel is a secular state.
Lebanon is in this war because Hezbollah has taken it over and uses it as a military base from which they attack Israel. They're a cancer on an otherwise beautiful country. I assure you all the native Lebanese I've known over the years hate Hezbollah and wish someone, anyone, they don't care, would help them get rid of the Hezbollah tumor in their homeland. Right now Israel is their only hop
Re: (Score:2)
I bring up the Torah because the current government coalition only exists because of the religious political parties. Ie, they're being hypocritical. Without those parties, then likely Netanyahu wouldn't be in charge, and likely there would have been a lesser response to the Hamas attacks.
I bring up the Lebanon thing because Israel is bombing more than just Hezbollah. Innocent civilians make up the bulk of casualties. Israel seems to think that as long a there are enemies, it's ok to kill civilians.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The Palestinians are not perfect. They don't conduct themselves perfectly.
Nelson Mandela and the ANC were not perfect. They also didn't conduct themselves perfectly when resisting Apartheid South Africa.
To expect perfection from a people who are being violently repressed and actively dispossessed of their land is to be on the wrong side of history.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
"They are not perfect" is as far as I'm willing to criticize a people who are being oppressed. I'm old enough to remember the moral shitstains that kept crowing the line "but Nelson Mandela and the ANC are using TeRrOriSm so they are the bad guys". I debated that on more than one occasion with first world armchair moralists who thought they knew about the South African struggle despite not even being able to point to South Africa on a map.
I'll criticise the absolute FUCK out of Hamas the day Israel withdraw
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Excellent! (Score:2)
Most of us can tell the difference between an American and a MAGA Republican. Some of us can even tell the difference between a Palestinian and a member of Hamas!
Re: Excellent! (Score:5, Interesting)
a third of progressives categorically hate Jews while pretending that it's all about Israel
Stop with the bullshit. It's not about "hating" Jews, it's about hating Israeli genocidal policies, the most recent of which is to put Palestinians in an enclosed camp. Sound familiar? If people are okay with this, then there was nothing wrong with the Holocaust.
At this point, Jews are doing to others that which was done to them. If it's supposed to be wrong then, it's wrong now.
Re: (Score:2)
"It's not about "hating" Jews, it's about hating Israeli genocidal policies,"
Weird how so much hate about Israeli genocidal policies gets directed against non-Israeli Jews in the US.
"At this point, Jews are doing to others that which was done to them."
Wait, I thought it was Israeli genocidal policies. Now one paragraph later you're talking about how it's Jews doing it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
The people presently in power in Israel believe in the concept of collective punishment regarding the Palestinian people and have been acting on that principle in the occupied territories for decades. The weird thing is that they don't care that this is a founding principle of the Holocaust and don't admit the irony. Racists are like that.
I agree with everything you said, but none of it justifies us becoming like Nazis as well.
Re: (Score:3)
When you find someone that can only see bad in Israel, and no bad in Palestine (or Hamas), then you probably found a Jew hater.
They're both good in that they are good for their people, and they are both bad because they are bad for other people. I dislike both religions, as I dislike all religions. I dislike all regimes which oppose peace, I dislike all regimes which oppose rights. As such I'm not too fond of too many governments, and no religions, but I still believe you cannot simply make war on them for both practical and ethical reasons.
I believe Netanyahu when he says he has made sure Hamas got funded because it's part of his
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah well I don't see you as a Jew hater. You're a little more balanced than that.
I'm not big into hating anyone, except for people who are actively harming others. I'm also probably descended from crypto-Jews, so hating Jews would be extra stupid of me.
I don't even hate all Zionists, some of them are protesting Netanyahu on the regular for example. And still more of them are no doubt appalled at what he's doing with their nation, but too afraid to speak out against it. I blame all Zionists, but I do it with the understanding that I am partially to blame for what my nation does, and much
Re: (Score:2)
Troll. You can easily despise the awful Israel created war and be Jewish at the same time. Netanyahu is mostly just avoiding prison time (sound familiar) by trying to desparately hold onto power. He's not even bothering to get hostages back, and relatives of hostages are being shouted at as being traitors when they demand that Netanyahu do more to get their loved ones back.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why would he try to get the hostages back? If he gets them back, then there'll be even more pressure on him to stop his genocide.
Re: Excellent! (Score:2)
That's racist too. Do better than that.
Old news (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
But we can still call each other a bunch of motherfuckers today.
Re: Old news (Score:2)
Indeed, and I think we'll be doing that a lot in the coming weeks. ;o)
Re:This story is from April. (Score:2)
Look who posted it. The enfecalization of Slashdot is interesting because there is no apparent supporting revenue model. Management decline to return to fame and profit by copying founder success, but the site is not sold off either.
"Slashdotted" sites mentioned here once drove millions of views. Now Slashdot is a shadow of a shade of a ghost of its former self largely due to deliberate editorial choices which include worthless padding (it's too weak to appear as activism) to flaunt that no one cares.
Coexistence sticker? (Score:4, Interesting)
Notice how it's "coexistence" ON THEIR TERMS ONLY.
Leave these people to rot on the vine.
Don't be evil (Score:3, Insightful)
Would love to hear from the original crew how they feel about the shiatshow Google has become.
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Don't be evil (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure that requiring workers to work is evil.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm not sure that requiring workers to work is evil.
That is in fact one of the great debates of all time.
I'm not a thoughts and prayers type so I believe in preparing for defense in a world where that is unfortunately necessary. And that means a certain amount of work must be done to support it. And obviously, people have to eat, and we need housing, and clothing, and so on. This all means that there is a certain minimum amount of work that needs to be done, and we have to find a way to do it.
On the other hand, the notion that certain people have to do certa
Lawsuit for wrongful termination (Score:1)
Now it will turn to class action
Re: (Score:2)
They can file a lawsuit and lose, like they lost their jobs.
Re: (Score:2)
Political opinion is not a protected class. If your employer tells you to not discuss politics at work, there's not much you can do about it. Recently fired and now you think they should spend piles of cash on a lawsuit they'd lose?
Sex, Age, National Origin, Religion, etc.. Those are the things you can't be fired for.. Flapping your gums about politics isn't in the list.... Besides, any sane person knows better than to start dragging up politics at work.. All it does is cause problems and divisions.
So they are going back into China? (Score:2)
Are US CEOs.. (Score:4, Interesting)
... actually starting to understand that it was a bad idea to let people become so "comfy" at work that they make it into their own extended living rooms and take their personal lives and political/emotional baggage with them, including taking it out on coworkers?
Seems so - and better late than never.
China? (Score:2)
Everyone should be okay with this (Score:2)
I've been reliably informed by a great number of people who think certain ideas should be suppressed that freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences.
Easy one liner: (Score:2, Troll)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)
The arguments about this war are uniquely one-sided because one side is easy to argue (and prone to using deceptive talking points), while the other side is fighting for the future of its civilization without a five second sound bite that demonstrates it.
I legitimately can't tell which side is which here.
Re: (Score:2)
Yet he got modded a troll. The only hint was "while the other side is fighting for the future of its civilization without a five second sound bite that demonstrates it."
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
As someone who is firmly on one side, I don't want to lose my friends because they don't know what I know, and probably not even if they have vastly different starting principles.
As someone who is firmly on one side, I want friends who are willing to learn things. That's why I'm still here on Slashdot spending my time fighting trolls and arguing against ignorance. For all of its failures, this is still a place where I learn things, and where I find people willing to be taught things. I love to help people learn things, but teachers get fucked over hard in this country so I never wanted to become one despite all the people (many of them teachers) who have suggested that I do so. Inst
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Re: Pichai is a Modi Supremacist Fuck... (Score:2)
Yes, they wear swastikas and shite.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Hopefully, predident Trump will be able to eradicate this dangerous illness.
Wait, you're a Republican Conservative, right?
So, since when did Republicans become pro-abortion? I mean, until a few months ago I kept hearing all about how awful Progressives supposedly are for supposedly defending the after-birth abortion of 1-year-old babies.
Or is it that aborting 1-year-old babies is perfectly morally valid, commendable even, if it's Middle Eastern 1-year-old babies?
Perhaps the criteria is how much melanin the 1-year-old baby's skin contains. That would fit too.
Re: Pichai is a Modi Supremacist Fuck... (Score:1)
Re: Pichai is a Modi Supremacist Fuck... (Score:2)
Re:banning speech. always a good look. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: banning speech. always a good look. (Score:2, Insightful)
They are not randomly protesting.
They are protesting that their work is being used to support oppression.
That they lost their jobs, and that they probably knew that they would, shows that their were willing to put skin in the game.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I guess you're technically right.
But there's a broader question here: What do we as a society do about companies that engage in behaviour that runs contrary to morality? Do we allow profit to be the beginning and the end of company behaviour? Or do we say things like "we believe, as a society, that genocide is wrong, and we will not allow our citizens or companies to engage in it" ? If we do want to forbid companies from participating in genocide, how do we do that?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
EXACTLY, hence their form of protest available to them is quit. Anything else they have to accept it may mean getting fired. This is all fair, speech was not banned like the OP claimed.
Or course free speech is being banned. It's just like when someone posts a lie online and people call out that lie. Their free speech was banned. /s
Re: banning speech. always a good look. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:banning speech. always a good look. (Score:4, Informative)
No one at works wants to hear your world view. You don't want to hear theirs, especially if it's different than yours.
How about you work at work and talk not-work when not at work?
Is it that hard? These people are not your friends. After this job you'll never talk to most of them again. Most just want to do their 9-6 and go home with a paycheck without the stress of dealing with everyone else's political trauma. Just leave them alone.
If you don't like management's decisions then quit. It's true everywhere but 10x so at the big successful tech companies: you can be replaced in a heartbeat, they don't give a shit about you and don't need you at all. You're a cog.
Re: (Score:1)
No one at works wants to hear your world view. You don't want to hear theirs, especially if it's different than yours.
Except for today (November 6th) where all the Nazis will be joyously regaling their co-workers at how great things will now be while their taxes go up and tariffs destroy their business.
Re: (Score:3)
After 8 years of leftist bullshit, you can grant them one day of joy. Nazis just don't have that much fun anymore, except when taking over campus and declaring "no Jew zones".
Yes taxes will go up, and tariffs will uh oh wait Biden doubled down on tariffs while Harris said she'd let the Trump tax cuts expire.
You live in a bizarre and unreal universe.
Re: (Score:2)
After 8 years of leftist bullshit, you can grant them one day of joy. Nazis just don't have that much fun anymore, except when taking over campus and declaring "no Jew zones".
Either you aren't from the US, are trolling here, or you just woke up from a 2 year comma. You just combined the crazies from both parties into 1 entity.