#No Tech for Apartheid

[motherofplatypus]

To my fellow US protestors who fights against apartheid and genocide. Here's his account.

Extra tips from other rebloggers down below, I add it here so its easier for others to see. If anyone reblogged with more tips, I'll add yours as well. May this be helpful:

@lercymoth:

"Be advised, police have the tools to detect who's phones are at a protest. If you can, bring a recording device other than your phone."

@stuntwocket:

"Phones can be encrypted to prevent state actors from accessing footage, cameras cannot. There’s no correct answer, but both pieces of information are important when deciding what you’re going to bring."

@lotsa-cats-in-a-trenchcoat:

"Also a good idea to look into faraday bags. They make your phone undetectable. Better keep your phone on you just in one of those in case you need to contact someone urgently."

@silvergryphonart:

"This is your excuse to buy a recording spy pen. You know you want to. They’re not even expensive. They’re not even rare." (The user shared this info for the greater good, don't you dare using it for nasty stuff)

@doug-dimmadumb:

-Airplane mode or bring a burner phone. Keep lots of encryption apps and VPNs on your phone if you can, and make sure you know how your connection works well. Signal is necessary. Travel in groups.

-Follow the tactics of the Hong Kong protesters. These cops, overconfident from their massive budgets, are likely more susceptible. But do be careful not to put yourself or others in danger.

-Use whatever resources you can to protect yourself. Remember you are not alone. Remember there may be agitators.

-Zionists are evil and vile, but they just want a reaction from you. Try not to engage with them. They're just spewing shit. You're stronger, better than them. Let them spew their crap and focus on the challenges at hand.

-Dont. Give. Up.

[sayruq]

Dear Mark Zuckerberg and Leadership, This letter is a follow-up to the letter that was circulated internally on Dec 19, 2023 and deleted and dismissed due to our Community Engagement Expectations (CEE) on what can be discussed internally. Hence, we are sharing our concerns externally. We, Meta employees, wish to express our disappointment and astonishment at the lack of acknowledgement and care the leaders of this company have shown toward the Palestinian community and its allies. In private conversations, we hear from our Palestinian colleagues about family members they have lost in Gaza and family they are working tirelessly to find safety for. However, any open support for our Palestinian colleagues or the millions facing a humanitarian crisis in Palestine is met with internal censorship of employee concerns, biased leadership statements showing one-sided support, and external censorship that is raising public alarm and distrust of our platforms. Internally, we have called out the months of silencing within our workplace forums. While we loudly display “Your voice is valued”, CEE is used as a guise to delete dissenting opinions and silence employees that may simply be seeking solace from their coworkers or raising awareness about building safer products. While in other companies, employees within Employee Resource Groups (ERG) are allowed to connect and speak freely with each other, ERG’s such as Muslims@ and Palestinians@ have faced so much censorship that an employee proposed just deleting the ERG altogether instead of giving the illusion that we can freely build community at Meta. CEE claims to reduce disruptions in our workplace, yet censorship from CEE has caused many of us at Meta to feel disrupted, unheard, and unsafe to the point that several of our Metamates have decided to resign. In the words of our former colleague, any mention of Palestine is taken down - Even when the post was from a colleague expressing their grief. Even when the post was to celebrate the UN International day of support to the Palestinian people. Even when the post is a link to a fundraiser to help the Gazans. Even when asking questions about product bugs that affect Palestinian voices.

One of the original core values of Facebook was to “Be Open” and our current values claim that “We create a culture where we are straightforward and willing to have hard conversations with each other.” Employees have always been first responders to surface issues raised externally to those internally with the power and knowledge to fix them. However when over 450 colleagues came together to sign a letter similar to this one in December, CEE was used to delete the letter and restrict one of the writers from their work devices for over two months while the workplace, product, and policy concerns brought forth were completely ignored. Employees have attempted to raise product concerns related to the conflict only to have their posts and comments censored or dismissed throughout internal channels. Most recently, questions about investigative reports indicating the possibility of governments, ISPs, and coordinated bad actors using Whatsapp data for military targeting have been met with dismissive and insufficient responses or outright deleted throughout internal forums. Meta leaders have posted numerous strong statements of support for our Israeli colleagues along with condemnation of the attack on Israel on October 7th that took the lives of ~1,200 civilians, both on internal and external platforms. Mark stated on his public Facebook - “The terrorist attacks by Hamas are pure evil. There is never any justification for carrying out acts of terrorism against innocent people. The widespread suffering that has resulted is devastating. My focus remains on the safety of our employees and their families in Israel and the region.”

However, bias and inequity is painfully apparent when those same leaders do not similarly share support for our Palestinian colleagues and allies nor condemnation of the attacks on Palestine, which have now taken ~35,000 civilian lives and created a humanitarian crisis of displacement and starvation for ~2 million Palestinians. This has created a hostile and unsafe work environment for hundreds of our Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, anti-Zionist Jew, and anti-genocide colleagues at the company, who have felt consistently alienated and uncomfortable at work. Many have tried to articulate this through posts on Workplace only to be censored, rebuffed, and/or penalized. Feedback shared directly with leadership on Workplace Chat has been met with dismissiveness. Bias and inequity for the human rights and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is also apparent when compared to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after which there was an outpouring of leadership support on all fronts, including additional resourcing and investment through various social impact initiatives. The lights in the Dublin office were even painted with the colors of the Ukraine flag. Leadership must do better to achieve true equity and inclusion. Externally, when it comes to Palestine, the dismissive tone and lack of investment by Meta is not new and the company has consistently failed to thoroughly take action on years of evidence of suppression of Palestinian voices on our platforms worldwide. In 2024 the company is still slowly addressing the findings of an independent audit influenced by Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) 2021 letter to Meta on the Palestinian conflict 3 years ago. In the wake of October 7th, Meta has ignored reasonable requests for transparency on our content policies from Senator Elizabeth Warren and other lawmakers around the globe. Numerous civil rights organizations, some of whom are Meta partners, have been met with dismissal on the censorship concerns brought forth - leading to external petitions such as one against Meta’s proposed policy of treating “Zionist” as a proxy for "Jewish”, which collected over 52,000 signatures. While Meta denies any Palestinian censorship or bias to the public, internally groups of employee volunteers have found numerous product and policy issues with disparate impacts to Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab communities since October 7th. The few improvements that have been made were achieved only by appealing to isolated product teams, with minimal senior leadership support or resources. Furthermore, in the wake of global criticism of censorship and moderation, leading into the biggest year for democracy in history, Meta has updated its policy to no longer recommend ‘political content’ by default across Instagram and Threads without clear guidelines of how this would impact content originating from global conflict zones. Meta has continued to fail the Palestinian community through its policies and lack of investment.

“Meta.Metamate.Me.” We believe we are all Meta and are committed to respectfully working together to address the issues internally and externally, while holding firmly to the demands we have been echoing for months: We demand an end to censorship - stop deleting employee’s words internally in order to foster an inclusive environment where all communities feel seen, heard, and safe We demand acknowledgment - share internal acknowledgments of support for Palestinian colleagues and acknowledge the lives lost in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza to recognize our shared humanity We demand transparency and accountability - allocate dedicated resources to investigate issues of censorship and biases on our platforms and openly disclose findings to build trust among employees and the public We implore you to end the silence - issue a public statement urging for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza As tech workers, we have a tremendous privilege to work on products that serve the world, and with that comes tremendous responsibility. We have been proud to work at Meta – and want to continue believing in its mission to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.

If you're a current or former Meta worker please sign the letter here

[nelsonakis]

Google arrested 9 employees and then fired 28 for protesting the company's 1.2B contract with Israel (Project Nimbus)

[exclusivelyhomosexual]

KEEP BOYCOTTING STORES THAT SUPPORT THE ISRAELI ARMY. DO NOT STOP JUST BC OF THE “CEASEFIRE.” DO NOT STOP ESPECIALLY DURING THE HOLIDAYS.

Four days of a “ceasefire” during the year’s biggest commercial weekend means they’re actually scared of the business they will lose. So make them scared. As much as you are capable of, please do not give business to these companies during one of the most lucrative time of year. Boycotting to pressure companies can work and has worked in the past.

These are just a few basic links to information about how to boycott strategically (rather than just haphazard boycotting which is less effective) as well as a petition to ask Amazon and google to withdraw their tech and financial support for the Israeli army. These are not exhaustive and I encourage you to continue to research, as I will, to continue to make the most strategic and effective impact (this also can vary a lot depending on where you live, so research more localized info too!)

[dremilioastutoworld]

Google Workers Fired After Protest Against Genocide, Nimbus & Apartheid! No To The Layoffs! Free Gaza! Song & Poetry by É. Roscha! 🔌

[news4dzhozhar]

[hack-saw2004]

EARLIER TODAY: our comrades in tokyo are protesting outside of google's japanese headquarters, chanting "no tech for genocide! free free palestine!" they are there protesting project nimbus, a project contracted with google and amazon for the israeli government. there has been a huge lack of transparency as to what exactly project nimbus is being used for, its been said to provide cloud computing infrastructure, ai, and "other technology services". employees and allies are not confident that this isnt being used to advance the genocide in palestine, this mixed with the general lack of transparency is what has caused protests since project nimbus's inception a few years ago and more recently the firing of 50 google employees for their protests here in the states.

[hassanatforusmk]

@GOOGLE & @AMAZON ARE ENABLING THE FIRST AI-POWERED GENOCIDE.

Over the last 100+ days, Israel has escalated its assault on Gaza in what's being called the first AI-facilitated genocide in human history. @amazon @google & companies across tech have powered the current genocide of Palestinians in Gaza & the surveillance & oppression of Paletinians across historic Palestine for years, revving up Israel's genocide machine that has led to the murder of 32K-F Palestinians, according to @euromedhr.

Last November, a @972mag investigation revealed the Israeli military's use of a new AI-based system called Habsora ("The Gospel") to automatically generate bombing targets & kill Palestinians in Gaza at an unprecedented rate.

Google & Amazon are also providing powerful Al tech to the Israeli military through the $1B Project Nimbus contract, which was signed while Israel dropped bombs on Gaza during its May 2021 assault.

In 2022, a @theintercept investigation confirmed @Google is offering advanced Al & machine-learning capabilities to Israel via Nimbus. The dots indicate that the new cloud would include facial detection tech & even sentiment analysis that claims to "assess the emotional content of pictures, speech & writing" to Israel. Any of these capabilities

In 2022, a @theintercept investigation confirmed @Google is offering advanced Al & machine-learning capabilities to Israel via Nimbus. The docs indicate that the new cloud would include facial detection tech & even sentiment analysis that claims to "assess the emotional content of pictures, speech & writing" to Israel. Any of these capabilities supercharge Israel's ability to surveil Palestinians & collect/process data on Palestinians—key strategies of the Israeli occupation.

Workers don't want their labor to be used to power genocide.

For 2+ yrs, Google & Amazon workers w/ community orgs have organized against the companies' ties to Israel. Last year, 100s of tech workers & community protested at @googlecloud & @amazonwebservices conferences in SF & NYC. In 2022, tech workers & community organized #NoTechForApartheid demonstrations in four tech hubs across the US in a historic show of unity & solidarity among workers across two of the biggest tech companies on the planet.

We won't stop organizing until @amazon @google drop Nimbus & the tech industry stops fueling state violence & genocide.

Take action: - Are you a tech worker? Get involved at t.ly/ NotaGenerallntake

Demand #NoTechForApartheid by emailing the CEOs at notechforapartheid.com.

[dots3a]

“I am a Google Cloud software engineer, and I refuse to build technology that powers genocide, apartheid, or surveillance,” shouted the protester, wearing an orange t-shirt emblazoned with a white Google logo. “No tech for apartheid!”

[melodyschaos]

TAKE ACTION NOW - WORLD BEYOND WAR

I don't usually post at all but this is very important. Here on the website of World Beyond War there are several petitions that enable you to do your part in ending war and violence and/or US military occupation in places it has absolutely no business being (which is pretty much everywhere).

I'm someone who hasn't been able to do much financially but these letters and petition signings are the way to go! Only by us all banding together to reach the goals can we actually make a difference. Let our voices be heard! Help us make steps to put an end to the suffering going on in so many places throughout the world!

[zozoubbb]

people arent talking about this near enough, but when boycotting brands that support the israeli apartheid, that also means pressuring big tech companies like Amazon and Google who are oppenly supporting and doing business with the Israeli Apartheid. they are profiting on this genocide.

[sayruq]

Google has fired more than 50 staffers in the wake of in-office protests over the company's cloud computing deals with Israel, according to an activist group representing the former employees. No Tech for Apartheid has protested the cloud computing contracts Google and Amazon have with the Israeli government since 2021. The group said that Google fired more than 20 employees Monday night, bringing the number of total firings to more than 50 since last week, the group said in a statement posted on Medium. The firings came after nine employees were arrested on April 16 during sit-in protests at Google offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, California, The Washington Post reported.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

This evening, Google indiscriminately fired over two dozen workers, including those among us who did not directly participate in yesterday’s historic, bicoastal 10-hour sit-in protests. This flagrant act of retaliation is a clear indication that Google values its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and military more than its own workers. In the three years that we have been organizing against Project Nimbus, we have yet to hear from a single executive about our concerns. Google workers have the right to peacefully protest about terms and conditions of our labor. These firings were clearly retaliatory.

[because--palestine]

No Tech for Apartheid: Google Workers Arrested for Protesting Company’s $1.2B Contract with Israel

Two of the Google employees were arrested staging sit-ins on Tuesday at the company’s offices in New York City and in Sunnyvale, California, to protest the tech giant’s work with the Israeli government. Organized by the group No Tech for Apartheid, the protesters are demanding Google withdraw from Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud computing services to the Israeli military. “Google execs basically chose to arrest workers for speaking out against the use of our technology to power the first AI-powered genocide,” says Google software engineer Mohammad Khatami, who was arrested in New York. Google worker-organizer Ray Westrick, who was arrested occupying CEO Thomas Kurian’s office, says “more people are willing to organize and risk their jobs in order to take a stand against complicity in genocide.” We also speak with No Tech for Apartheid organizer and former Google worker Gabriel Schubiner, who calls on the tech industry to divest from Google and Amazon services. “Technology workers actually have a lot of power to shift this paradigm and to remove technology from this deep complicity with the Israeli occupation,” Schubiner says.

[readingsquotes]

"AI-driven warfare

Mona Shtaya, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, told The Verge that the Lavender system is an extension of Israel’s use of surveillance technologies on Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. 

Shtaya, who is based in the West Bank, told The Verge that these tools are particularly troubling in light of reports that Israeli defense startups are hoping to export their battle-tested technology abroad. 

Since Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza began, the Israeli military has relied on and developed a host of technologies to identify and target suspected Hamas operatives. In March, The New York Times reported that Israel deployed a mass facial recognition program in the Gaza Strip — creating a database of Palestinians without their knowledge or consent — which the military then used to identify suspected Hamas operatives. In one instance, the facial recognition tool identified Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha as a suspected Hamas operative. Abu Toha was detained for two days in an Israeli prison, where he was beaten and interrogated before being returned to Gaza.

Another AI system, called “The Gospel,” was used to mark buildings or structures that Hamas is believed to operate from. According to a +972 and Local Call report from November, The Gospel also contributed to vast numbers of civilian casualties. “When a 3-year-old girl is killed in a home in Gaza, it’s because someone in the army decided it wasn’t a big deal for her to be killed — that it was a price worth paying in order to hit [another] target,” a military source told the publications at the time.

“We need to look at this as a continuation of the collective punishment policies that have been weaponized against Palestinians for decades now,” Shtaya said. “We need to make sure that war times are not used to justify the mass surveillance and mass killing of people, especially civilians, in places like Gaza.”

[news4dzhozhar]