Mushtaq Syed, Muslim Googler:

I am a Muslim from India who has thoroughly studied the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. During much of my time working in this company and attempting to find community and a voice within Google's ERG system, I have found Google's DEI to be a whitewash and more a tool for censorship and control than for truly supporting employees. In addition to having participated in many "DEI" focused meetings where pro-Palestinian voices like my own were silenced, I have also felt disappointed by the company's response to the employee petition to drop Project Nimbus. I am one of the employees who signed this petition. Google has not responded to our voices and our many attempts to escalate our grave ethical concerns in a civil and respectful manner. Google continues to stand by its lucrative work building technology to support the Israeli government and military, even though Israel consistently breaks international law, dispossesses more and more Palestinians families from their lands and homes, imprisons children, and even murdered a journalist. How can this be reconciled with Google's DEI objectives?

I find it abhorrent that Google would work on Project Nimbus with the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and not even offer a response to employee concerns. How can Google justify providing tools to a country described as an apartheid state by groups like the leading Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, Amnesty international, and Human Rights Watch. This is a blatant contradiction to Google's commitment to its DEI objectives. The world knows that the Israeli government and the IDF would use this technology to grow its capacity to brutalize Palestinians. How does Google reconcile this with its AI Principles? My final point is that I was in dismay noticing the discrepancy between Google's overwhelming response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis and the lack thereof for the Palestinian refugee crisis that has been ongoing for 70 years. I am very disappointed with Google and I am questioning my future at this company after witnessing the company's indiscriminate decision to profit off of human suffering and war.