Palestine: Civil society organisations express solidarity with tech workers for speaking up against Google’s complicity in violations of Palestinian human rights by providing AI to Israeli Govt. and military
"Civil society organizations stand in solidarity with tech workers who speak out against oppression" 11 September 2022
We, the undersigned Palestinian civil society organizations and human rights organizations, are in solidarity with tech workers, who speak out against corporations whose policies contravene international law, as well as business and human rights principles...It is unacceptable to be marginalized for being Palestinian or for demanding your companies to respect human rights including Palestinian rights, and we stand in solidarity with you for speaking up, and against any retaliation by your corporation.
...We are witnessing an alarming trend of tech giants cozying up to repression regimes around the world, thereby exacerbating the digital divide, ongoing oppression, and existing racism toward marginalized and occupied communities, such as the Palestinian people. Google, for example, through its Nimbus project, provides very advanced AI tools that provides Israel with facial recognition, automated image categorization...to assess the emotional content of pictures, speech, and writing...
...We believe your internal activism, from within large tech giants, is essential. We see this work as an extension of all human rights work and advocacy efforts that are taking place outside the companies. Therefore, we encourage you to...help us create a safe, fair and free digital world and to speak out openly/ non-anonymously whenever possible...