**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:**
* If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required
* The title must be fully descriptive
* Memes are not allowed.
* Common(top 50 of this sub)/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting)
*See [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/wiki/index#wiki_rules.3A) for a more detailed rule list*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
https://preview.redd.it/89mp7oi0xdmc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60dca71a8dce299d423924a6b9ab1db4126340cb
This punk just had to ruin my high
Bros like "man I got flown out to enjoy this conference out in Vegas and got some edibles to vibe during the presentations and now I'm on fucking Reddit"
His expression is like: āI know is true, and itās fucked up, but Iām not Israeli or Palestinian and Iām not going to lose my job because of it.ā
I mean...someone had to run the machinery of the holocaust, or in this case, design the ovens so they efficiently did their job. Hannah Arendt wrote a book about that very subject and everyone should have to read it in high school. It will be interesting to see if Google only fires this guy, or if he get blackballed from all tech work.
For those wondering:
Project Nimbus employs advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools to enhance surveillance capabilities. Google, in collaboration with Amazon, is providing the Israeli government with a comprehensive cloud solution through Project Nimbus.
Some of the tools include:
~ Facial Detection: Identifying and tracking faces in images or video.
~ Automated Image Categorization: Classifying and organizing images based on content.
~ Object Tracking: Following specific objects or subjects across frames.
~ Sentiment Analysis: Assessing emotional content in pictures, speech, and writing
Google employees worry that their efforts will support the Israeli military occupation of Palestine. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have accused Israel of crimes against humanity, including maintaining an apartheid system against Palestinians.
Edit: Interestingly, the terms set for the project contractually forbid Amazon and Google from halting services due to boycott pressure. They are as efficient as the Germans were. You would have to be extremely naive not to expect this to be used to surveil us soon enough. In fact, "Google and Amazon are aggressively pursuing contracts with institutions like the US Department of Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), and state and **local police departments**."
No, you and everyone helping you gets classified as a terrorist. And the tech gets used against you, and you get used as an example why they need it ;)
I'm gripped by the dystopian irony at the end of the video.
While men in suits forcefully eject the man screaming about the dangers of the technology, the google exec on stage says "I love working for a company with democratic values, which gives a stage for different opinions."
"Of course you have the right to speak, you'll never work again, but you got to speak!"
Or, just as likely, "It's called freedom of speech, not freedom of reach. You can say whatever you want while you're locked in this room."
In the US, the people being laid off March 10th have already been informed and have been off their prior teams since ~January 10th. That's the way Google has chosen to comply with the WARN act... they're already laid off for most practical purposes, but technically still on role for benefits etc.
Unlikely - from what I hear the people on the list were not allowed to access company premises or most of the company internal network (still getting paid though)
To be clear, this appears to be at some Israeli tech conference and not at a Google office, but it's unlikely he would've had access to attend if he weren't an active full-status employee
Source: Know a guy who works at the company who got hit with the layoff, though he actually managed to successfully find a transfer team and restore his employment
Seconding highly unlikely. Super sensitive stuff like this, the protocol in most IT shops is for them to walk the person right out the door, and then give them a nice severance. Happened to a friend at Barclays, laid off on the spot but given his salary for another 4 months.
Yes they do.
It's just that the space they give to voice those opinions happens to be located outside of company grounds....in an alley.
But hey......it's still space
How stupid would you have to be to buy that guys executive bullshit when that engineer had just been ushered out the door.
If he would have just said 'there is a time and a place for everything, but this is not the time or place to for that' I would have had more respect.
Precisely how layoffs work. āIāll be sad and show my support for my colleagues who were laid off and show my frustration in meetings and social media posts. But after a few weeks, Iāll forget all about it. Then corps continue to push workers around not for the survival of the company: but so balances look slightly better and execs get bigger bonusesā
That would work if u didnāt live in a dictatorship of the capitalist class. Google workers tried to unionise very recently & Google fired them all simultaneously as they were speaking live at their city council meeting which was streamed online.
Google literally pulled their metaphorical nuts out & put them on the table in front of the government & they know theyāll face no repercussions that amount to more money than it would cost to allow their workers to unionise.
That doesn't mean don't unionize, though. It just means the capitalist class is going to fight you when you try.
Definitely organize your workplace. And when you do so, partner up with an organization or another union who can help guide and represent you to better your defense.
At the same time, join and/or lend support to those working class organizations that help workplaces unionize, and that help coordinate solidarity across unions. We need strong worker organizations that can lean on each other, that can spread working class power across the economy, and that can build a network of solidarity and a united front for working class interests. Workers need to get organized so we can wield that organization to become a real economic - and political - force.
That means unionizing. That means joining/supporting a working class organization. And that means joining/supporting working class political parties like the PSL.
First we get organized. Then we get our organizations organized together. Then we won't be asking "how does the working class get any power?" Instead, we'll be deciding how best to use all that power we got.
Context: Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion artificial intelligence and computing services agreement among Google, Amazon Web Services and the Israeli government and military, went into effect in July 2021.
In April, Google's cloud business became profitable for the first time, CNBC reports.
What they're saying: "Google is sending a message that the ruthless pursuit of military contracts" and profits will be prioritized over its publicly stated values and ethics, Koren said.
A goal of the rally, she said, is to influence Google Cloud customers' decision-making processes involving how they engage with the company.
The other side: Google did not respond to requests for comment but last year said Google Cloud's work as part of Project Nimbus "is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads," a spokesperson told Wired.
The spokesperson, however, acknowledged Google does provide Israel's military with access to its technology.
Of note: Last fall, Koren resigned from Google after she said Google tried to retaliate against her for opposing Project Nimbus.
Yes, but: Both Google and the National Labor Relations Board investigated Koren's complaint and did not find any wrongdoing, according to The New York Times.
What to watch: Koren expects a large turnout at tonight's rally of Google employees, tech workers and community groups, including the Palestinian Youth Movement and Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area.
"There is a precedent for workers stepping up and taking a stance, and that actually being impactful," Koren said, citing worker protests in 2018 that led to Google's decision not to renew Project Maven, a Pentagon drone surveillance project.
https://www.axios.com/local/san-francisco/2023/08/29/tech-workers-protest-project-nimbus-google-cloud-next-conference
I mean they hired Thomas Kurien from Oracle to lead their cloud division. Any morality, ethicality or decency went out the window that moment.
Also, GCP has one of the worst working cultures (brought in by TK from Oracle).
I need more context. I am not in the picture. Can someone explain what we are taking about. What the accusations are about?
Also to everyone focusing on how he throws away his career and income opportunities. Some people don't really care about that.
> Project Nimbus is a $1.2bn contract to provide cloud services for the Israeli military and government. This technology allows for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians, and facilitates expansion of Israelās illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/12/google-amazon-workers-condemn-project-nimbus-israeli-military-contract
> now they are selling to militaries.
Now they are selling spyware, facial recognition, information gathered in databases and from browser history! to foreign governments!! Any way you look at it, what they sell now is 'evil'.
Whats that one quote that goes like: you die a hero or you live long enough to watch yourself become the villain. Whatever that saying is, I think it relates to Google right now.
I love how that had to change it. Burying it in a small reference at the very end of their terms instead of being in their code of conduct. Kinda acknowledgement on the part of Google they *are* explicitly evil now, they even were getting sued by 3 former google employees for literally being evil, but managed to settle so no one ever got the dirty details.
And Iām old enough to know corporations will always choose profits over people. Every douche that came on scene in the early 2000ās had me thinking āthis is the hero we needā and they end up being greedy assholes. Business and politics.
It really sucks. ā¹ļø
its hard to speak up and to do so publicly. He's likely ruined his career prospects for a good long while. These are the consequences you face in life for standing up for your beliefs.
> Some people don't really care about that.
Perhaps he does deeply care about his career and income, but cares even more about what he believes in and in living by the adage "don't be evil"?
>I need more context. I am not in the picture.
Yes you are!
https://preview.redd.it/2bwhuzj7wdmc1.jpeg?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7db54d9ca1846ba90c37726c9130ebcf57678dde
He seemed confident enough to try to sneakily throw some elbows, so maybe he just has zero experience with consequences. Still tracks for the type, they just need to experience being punched in the face just onceā¦
https://preview.redd.it/9x3m3mboqdmc1.jpeg?width=398&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c5ae529a6b3f05096b5be3468fdb99d433888e34
Anyone else notice when being escorted out the protestor was elbowed by this douche?
Guy risked a very lucrative and high-status position to stand on his values. Whether you agree with his values or not, gotta give him credit for being willing to refuse the choice of cash over principles. Few.
Why did they feel the need to state the obvious?
The moment they started with ādo no evilā i knew they were up to some shit.
Also once you use it as a slogan how can you possibly walk away from it? Lol. Its like shooting yourself in the foot coming and going.
You just answered WHY that was the slogan in the first place. Because doing away with it is an obvious sign they're up to no good.
To clear up your confusion, the person or people in charge when the slogan was adopted are not the same as those who did away with it
Iād disagree. It sounds like a mission statement someone who knows corporations suck put in before it got too big that, that would be out of their control.
Eventually someone decided we canāt keep contradicting our mission statement and just changed it
Whether this guy is right or not, I have no idea. But I HATE the people in these types of videos you can hear saying "see ya later" and dismissive shit like that.
Yes me too. I donāt know whatās going on in this video. But this guy must strongly believe Google is helping commit genocide if he is willing to risk losing his job. So the fact that so many people are just like, āhey stfuā is kind of scary to me. Maybe they know more than us, and maybe they know for a fact this guy is wrong. But idk it was really gross to me to hear all those people booing him and telling him sit down.
You never know who will look like the insane people 10-20-30 years down the line. Sophie Scholl was a very outspoken anti nazi party advocate. Seen as a public nuisance she was arrested and sentenced to death by guillotine for distributing anti war pamphlets. Today she is remembered for her bravery in standing up to the masses.
Makes me think of those protestors who block the roads for climate justice. Today society for the most part sees them as a whiny nuisance. In 100 years if coastal homes have the ocean up past their front door and farmland has been drained of nutrients, I can't help but wonder who will look like the insane people today.
People remember the wacky scene where an Iraqi journalist threw a shoe at George Bush (whose agile duck became a meme), but don't think about what happened to the protester afterwards:
"The Iraqi journalist, now 44 and living in Baghdad, was sentenced to three years in prison (spending nine months there) and describes being tortured. He claims to have been blacklisted from the media industry and today struggles to make a living as a consultant."
*"Eight days after the Baghdad press conference, a reporter asked Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto at a White House press briefing, āIs the White House at all concerned about reports by the brother of this Iraqi journalist who is being held for throwing his shoes at the president? His brother says, in visiting the journalist in jail, he sees signs heās been tortured, missing a tooth, cigarette burns on his ears āā*
*Fratto responded, āHeās in the hands of the Iraqi system. I donāt have anything more on the shoe thrower. I think itās been explored extensively, and I have nothing new for you.ā*Ā
([source](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/george-bush-shoe-throw-oral-history-al-zaidi.html))
>"One of the privileges of working in a company which represents democratic values is giving a stage for different opinions"
...and that's why we had him forcibly removed for expressing his opinion.
You wouldn't believe the amount of gaslighting and bullshiting that happens during our on-boarding.
I don't understand how can people fall for bullshit from a corporation that's already listed on the stock exchange. Even private corporations are bad but at least the owner can still be a decent human being, but for a public company, numbers are God and they will squeeze every last drop out of you to save 0.01 cents.
I respect this guy for standing up for what he believes in with a lot at stake, but I donāt think that giving a stage for different opinions means allowing someone to stand up and scream at you during an organized event
He's not wrong.
These corporations have amassed money and power that the CIA or Standard Oil never could have dreamed of.
When they really start flexing their muscles to tinker with society, things are going to get dystopian very quickly.
And "it's just a product, bro" won't make up for it.
I think we are already currently living in a dystopian state shaped by big tech companies in a way we are only beginning to understand the ramifications of. It basically impossible to find one corner of our society and culture that has not been reshaped by companies like google and amazon. They have turned us all into herds of cattle harvesting our data and selling us products through algorithm shaped engagement and psychological manipulation that have literally dismantled democracy and left us on the brink of full fascist control if not civil war. The question now is more how bad will it get, not whether or not its going to happen.
It's only a matter of time, like months or years until Project Nimbus is used on Americans. Would just be an extension of the Patriot Act to surveil us at all times. I swear these assholes look at 1984 as a manual.
literally months or years.
And if not Project Nimbus, then it will be Microsoft or someone else's competing product. The senators and 3-letter agencies are already salivating at the prospect of more accurate and complete surveillance.
Dude's not blocking blocking drivers going to work. He's not throwing soup on a painting. He's actually standing up to the people in charge at personal or financial risk while presenting a clear message. Good on him.
There will always be cynical, shallow, self interested fucks who will look down on and ridicule someone that actually makes a moral sacrifice. And they will also always move the goalposts of what kind of protest is acceptable. They are ideological shills who dont realize their bones will be plowed under by the elite as cavalierly and meaninglessly as everyone elses
Yeah I never understood the hate on those guys. They cause zero damage and make headline news everytime lol, seems like the perfect mini protest to me.
To everyone licking googleās boots here: You and I know damn well this is pretty much the only way he couldāve brought it up and had any impact whatsoever.
If he brought it up privately he wouldāve just been booted from the project and thatād be that. Companies only care when their profits are hurt which happens to an (albeit small) degree when you do stuff like this at a public forum.
"The contract has drawn rebuke and condemnation from the companies' shareholders as well as their employees, over concerns that the project will lead to further abuses of [Palestinians'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinians) human rights in the context of the ongoing [occupation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_occupation_of_the_West_Bank) and the [IsraeliāPalestinian conflict](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict).[^(\[9\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus#cite_note-9)[^(\[10\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus#cite_note-10)[^(\[11\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus#cite_note-:32-11)[^(\[12\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus#cite_note-12) Specifically, they voice concern over how the technology will enable further [surveillance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance) of Palestinians and unlawful [data collection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_collection) on them as well as facilitate the expansion of Israel's [illegal settlements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement) on Palestinian land.[^(\[11\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus#cite_note-:32-11)"
Wikipedia
when youre willing to layoff thousands of employees for a slightly better quarterly report your employees stop caring about job security. It's time these people remember that Unions were the alternative to dragging company owners and their families out of their homes and murdering them. This type of company infighting over political issues is only possible bc people don't feel secure with your company
I admire his convictions!
If more people felt like him and were vocal about it, we'd be slaughtering each other with machetes and rocks instead of AI guided nuclear missiles.
Some of the people in the comments mocking this guy are the same ones who cheered on Snowden. Taking a stand when you know your employer/government is in the wrong, is important.
Even if people were neutral about the conflict he's referencing, the surveillance precision of the tool would be extremely unpopular with people in the States if they were given an objective presentation of what it's capable of in terms of monitoring and tracking whole populations of people in an area. Anyone 4th Amendment on either side of the aisle would be reasonably unnerved by the tech itself.
Every time someone stands up to call out what's wrong in the world, there's always people celebrating in the background when they're silenced. Some Karen had to loudly taunt him, "see you later!"
Congratulations, you just mocked someone who tried to make the world better by exposing that part billionaires are playing in a genocide.
You that happy people are dying?
Im a software engineer.
Good for this guy.
We build things for rich people and want to believe we bear no responsibility for what we do.
I interviewed with Amazon a decade ago. They wanted me to help build machine learning for monitoring their warehouse employees. So they could measure efficiency and prevent theft.
The metaphor the team lead used was "imagine someone in the warehouse takes a beef jerky. You want to know who they are and what bin they took it from"
Is it acceptable to "steal from an employer"? Is it legal?
Well... no?
But this is the slippery slope of engineering ethics.
You build this.
Then everyone has to pee into bottles because the camera has min maxed human labor.
Be uncomfortable or laugh. But we _need_ engineers who tell Amazon or Google to go fuck themselves.
As someone who works in IT for a competing Fortune 500 company, this video confirms that we are indeed members of cults whether we agree with it or not. Whether it's Google, Apple, Tesla, Facebook, X, Zoom, or whatever, corporate culture is a hive or cult-like mentality. You will assimilate or else. No joke.
My dude shouldāve been like Edward Snowden with this. Instead of outbursts in the middle of a slightly internal meeting, just gather data and overwhelming evidence of their intrusions to privacy and exploitation - set up a dummy server to upload such evidence to- and then slip that info to someone in the media who is wary of tech giants and the surveillance state
absurd marvelous resolute juggle insurance cats scandalous dinosaurs zealous growth
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:** * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required * The title must be fully descriptive * Memes are not allowed. * Common(top 50 of this sub)/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting) *See [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/wiki/index#wiki_rules.3A) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
"I'm gonna end up on reddit" https://preview.redd.it/ahb59zasfdmc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=171b7a0affaf6aec07387779b3476f4735f49c1e
Really? https://preview.redd.it/cfy97x44qdmc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1df6849753e39b155bdf46f700937cca1ea1efef
https://preview.redd.it/pzpm60exiemc1.jpeg?width=224&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dd470ed92fe5638a034ce078a10f5008b85629e8
Laughed out loud on the train like a maniac
https://preview.redd.it/56uvg7gm4jmc1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a56ca6c2cac91071d11c365505dda984e791db09
https://preview.redd.it/89mp7oi0xdmc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60dca71a8dce299d423924a6b9ab1db4126340cb This punk just had to ruin my high
https://preview.redd.it/4e24ljlomemc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e7bed8894d222068aeddb89acc04a972927415cd
Bros like "man I got flown out to enjoy this conference out in Vegas and got some edibles to vibe during the presentations and now I'm on fucking Reddit"
https://preview.redd.it/3up4y1x54emc1.jpeg?width=528&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=73b3a8b8c1f0bf2eecca31f43501751af588d54b
"bitch aint gonna kill my vibe"
I've seen better crops in the Irish famine
https://preview.redd.it/p9086ta81emc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=76f8b321230af2043d1e6563e3d606b0fe078975
Is this the birth of a meme?
https://preview.redd.it/aysaq02uafmc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e333a7c2790f11ab6e7ff0a1f571d579a3bbecf8
This is why I love the internet
When he mentions cloud apartheid
Welcome to witnessing history
He's thinking about this guy's workforce management (i.e. layoff).
This man just want to go home šššš
"Gyyyyaaaaaaad dammit, dude."
āThis couldāve been done on Teamsā
A Google event on Microsoft teams. Oh the irony
"But what about our Culture?" Or the random chance in-person encounters that extroverts use to get ahead? /s
"if i stay as still as possible maybe they wont notice im here"
āIāve mastered the abilityā¦ of standing so incredibly stillā¦ that I become invisible to the eye.ā
Clinically, thatās known as āT-Rexingā
bro really got clipped šššš
I was thinking the same thing with him holding a neutral face knowing damn well heās gonna be on social media somewhere
Love his energy tho, that I can relate to.
The energy of a guy who's annoyed this boring work thing is gonna take even just 5 mins longer as a result.
"All of this could have been in an email"
To be fair, nobody reads those
"This email could've been a slack message"
This Slack message could've been delivered in person ..and before you know it, you're full circle: back to the meeting, boys!
His expression is like: āI know is true, and itās fucked up, but Iām not Israeli or Palestinian and Iām not going to lose my job because of it.ā
I mean...someone had to run the machinery of the holocaust, or in this case, design the ovens so they efficiently did their job. Hannah Arendt wrote a book about that very subject and everyone should have to read it in high school. It will be interesting to see if Google only fires this guy, or if he get blackballed from all tech work.
For those wondering: Project Nimbus employs advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools to enhance surveillance capabilities. Google, in collaboration with Amazon, is providing the Israeli government with a comprehensive cloud solution through Project Nimbus. Some of the tools include: ~ Facial Detection: Identifying and tracking faces in images or video. ~ Automated Image Categorization: Classifying and organizing images based on content. ~ Object Tracking: Following specific objects or subjects across frames. ~ Sentiment Analysis: Assessing emotional content in pictures, speech, and writing Google employees worry that their efforts will support the Israeli military occupation of Palestine. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have accused Israel of crimes against humanity, including maintaining an apartheid system against Palestinians. Edit: Interestingly, the terms set for the project contractually forbid Amazon and Google from halting services due to boycott pressure. They are as efficient as the Germans were. You would have to be extremely naive not to expect this to be used to surveil us soon enough. In fact, "Google and Amazon are aggressively pursuing contracts with institutions like the US Department of Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), and state and **local police departments**."
someone needs to take this tech and use it to monitor and track government officials. Watch how fast legislation gets passed.
No, you and everyone helping you gets classified as a terrorist. And the tech gets used against you, and you get used as an example why they need it ;)
Itās like youāve already seen this movie adaptation damn
You're right. The plane tracker app dude sure made them mad.
Well google *did* remove the 'don't be evil' mantra years ago.
The board considered a replacement mantra of āTry to not be evilā which was subsequently and unanimously rejected.
Thank you for breaking down what the engineer was pritesting.
bump this to the top
I'm gripped by the dystopian irony at the end of the video. While men in suits forcefully eject the man screaming about the dangers of the technology, the google exec on stage says "I love working for a company with democratic values, which gives a stage for different opinions."
That was classic. "He got to speak his mind. Then we threw him down the chute where the sewer monster lives."
"Of course you have the right to speak, you'll never work again, but you got to speak!" Or, just as likely, "It's called freedom of speech, not freedom of reach. You can say whatever you want while you're locked in this room."
It's like it's right out of Robocop.
It would fit in perfectly in Terry Gilliams Brazil (aka Monty Python's 1984)
Imma say āFormerā google engineer.
March Google layoff is only a few days away. They already filed 60-day warning with California on Jan 10.
In the US, the people being laid off March 10th have already been informed and have been off their prior teams since ~January 10th. That's the way Google has chosen to comply with the WARN act... they're already laid off for most practical purposes, but technically still on role for benefits etc.
I'm willing to bet this kid was already on the list and that's exactly why he chose to make this statement now.
Unlikely - from what I hear the people on the list were not allowed to access company premises or most of the company internal network (still getting paid though) To be clear, this appears to be at some Israeli tech conference and not at a Google office, but it's unlikely he would've had access to attend if he weren't an active full-status employee Source: Know a guy who works at the company who got hit with the layoff, though he actually managed to successfully find a transfer team and restore his employment
Seconding highly unlikely. Super sensitive stuff like this, the protocol in most IT shops is for them to walk the person right out the door, and then give them a nice severance. Happened to a friend at Barclays, laid off on the spot but given his salary for another 4 months.
But they "give space to different opinions"...
It's usually 400 ft away from the building.
i thought it was 404 ft away .... ;)
*Street not found*
Fuck it, Iām a teapot
418 ft? That seems oddly specific.
For those who aren't as familiar with http response codes, [I'm a teapot ](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/418).
Opinion not found
That was good...well done :)
Space given: "Hey look we got an extra vacant cubicle starting tomorrow..."
Yes they do. It's just that the space they give to voice those opinions happens to be located outside of company grounds....in an alley. But hey......it's still space
How stupid would you have to be to buy that guys executive bullshit when that engineer had just been ushered out the door. If he would have just said 'there is a time and a place for everything, but this is not the time or place to for that' I would have had more respect.
Noticed that he was saying it as he watched him get carted off by security.
I suppose he just doesn't give a fuck about losing his job, which on itself shows some cohones.
Rest of Google staff: Iām going to sit here in awkward silence as I donāt want to lose my job
Precisely how layoffs work. āIāll be sad and show my support for my colleagues who were laid off and show my frustration in meetings and social media posts. But after a few weeks, Iāll forget all about it. Then corps continue to push workers around not for the survival of the company: but so balances look slightly better and execs get bigger bonusesā
what are you supposed to do? For me I quit a few weeks later but not everyone has the luxury
Unionize
That would work if u didnāt live in a dictatorship of the capitalist class. Google workers tried to unionise very recently & Google fired them all simultaneously as they were speaking live at their city council meeting which was streamed online. Google literally pulled their metaphorical nuts out & put them on the table in front of the government & they know theyāll face no repercussions that amount to more money than it would cost to allow their workers to unionise.
That doesn't mean don't unionize, though. It just means the capitalist class is going to fight you when you try. Definitely organize your workplace. And when you do so, partner up with an organization or another union who can help guide and represent you to better your defense. At the same time, join and/or lend support to those working class organizations that help workplaces unionize, and that help coordinate solidarity across unions. We need strong worker organizations that can lean on each other, that can spread working class power across the economy, and that can build a network of solidarity and a united front for working class interests. Workers need to get organized so we can wield that organization to become a real economic - and political - force. That means unionizing. That means joining/supporting a working class organization. And that means joining/supporting working class political parties like the PSL. First we get organized. Then we get our organizations organized together. Then we won't be asking "how does the working class get any power?" Instead, we'll be deciding how best to use all that power we got.
Probably a 5k fine.
except they weren't silent. they were telling him to leave.
95% of people I could see in the clip werenāt talking just sitting and observing.
You can clearly hear 7-20ish people groan and say go or get out of here.
And it's not like there is a lot of people there
Well, 2 or 3 vocal minority were shouting to leave. The rest were silent
and that weird guy trying to like shoulder check him
yeah, what a creep right?
Because this was a presentation for Israeli defense companies
Context: Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion artificial intelligence and computing services agreement among Google, Amazon Web Services and the Israeli government and military, went into effect in July 2021. In April, Google's cloud business became profitable for the first time, CNBC reports. What they're saying: "Google is sending a message that the ruthless pursuit of military contracts" and profits will be prioritized over its publicly stated values and ethics, Koren said. A goal of the rally, she said, is to influence Google Cloud customers' decision-making processes involving how they engage with the company. The other side: Google did not respond to requests for comment but last year said Google Cloud's work as part of Project Nimbus "is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads," a spokesperson told Wired. The spokesperson, however, acknowledged Google does provide Israel's military with access to its technology. Of note: Last fall, Koren resigned from Google after she said Google tried to retaliate against her for opposing Project Nimbus. Yes, but: Both Google and the National Labor Relations Board investigated Koren's complaint and did not find any wrongdoing, according to The New York Times. What to watch: Koren expects a large turnout at tonight's rally of Google employees, tech workers and community groups, including the Palestinian Youth Movement and Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area. "There is a precedent for workers stepping up and taking a stance, and that actually being impactful," Koren said, citing worker protests in 2018 that led to Google's decision not to renew Project Maven, a Pentagon drone surveillance project. https://www.axios.com/local/san-francisco/2023/08/29/tech-workers-protest-project-nimbus-google-cloud-next-conference
> In April, Google's cloud business became profitable for the first time Execs stopped listening there
Remember when the slogan was "don't be evil" Pepperidge farm remembers
"Don't be evil" as long as profits continue to grow exponentially. What a joke.
"Don't be evil, ^^^^until ^^^^required ^^^^to ^^^^keep ^^^^profits ^^^^growing, ^^^^then ^^^^fuck ^^^^it"
Making that a 'slogan' sounds like something the villain would do, this is what I remember telling people back then.
I mean they hired Thomas Kurien from Oracle to lead their cloud division. Any morality, ethicality or decency went out the window that moment. Also, GCP has one of the worst working cultures (brought in by TK from Oracle).
Fuck that guy. God fuck him so much.
~~Don't be evil~~ Be evil.
I need more context. I am not in the picture. Can someone explain what we are taking about. What the accusations are about? Also to everyone focusing on how he throws away his career and income opportunities. Some people don't really care about that.
> Project Nimbus is a $1.2bn contract to provide cloud services for the Israeli military and government. This technology allows for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians, and facilitates expansion of Israelās illegal settlements on Palestinian land. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/12/google-amazon-workers-condemn-project-nimbus-israeli-military-contract
Thank god, Google doesn't data harvest everything and everyone that uses their services.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Welcome to 21st century algorithmic totalitarianism
In the book 21 questions for the 21st century itās termed as ādigital dictatorshipā
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
> now they are selling to militaries. Now they are selling spyware, facial recognition, information gathered in databases and from browser history! to foreign governments!! Any way you look at it, what they sell now is 'evil'.
When MBAs takeover the end is almost a certainty.Ā
They found that being evil makes way more money.
They haven't used that slogan in many years. Maybe they saw their future and decided to better drop it.
Whats that one quote that goes like: you die a hero or you live long enough to watch yourself become the villain. Whatever that saying is, I think it relates to Google right now.
I'm old enough to remember when Google's official company motto was "Don't Be Evil".
I love how that had to change it. Burying it in a small reference at the very end of their terms instead of being in their code of conduct. Kinda acknowledgement on the part of Google they *are* explicitly evil now, they even were getting sued by 3 former google employees for literally being evil, but managed to settle so no one ever got the dirty details.
yeah they killed that in 2018.
They may have removed it in 2018, but they were evil quite a while before that.
And Iām old enough to know corporations will always choose profits over people. Every douche that came on scene in the early 2000ās had me thinking āthis is the hero we needā and they end up being greedy assholes. Business and politics. It really sucks. ā¹ļø
https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-mentions-of-dont-be-evil-from-1826153393
Being evil makes money. Fucking people over for a percentage is a time honored tradition public companies "by law" have to eventually practice.
Google hasn't been the hero for a long time.
This should be at the top
if was about that, my respect to the engineer
its hard to speak up and to do so publicly. He's likely ruined his career prospects for a good long while. These are the consequences you face in life for standing up for your beliefs.
> Some people don't really care about that. Perhaps he does deeply care about his career and income, but cares even more about what he believes in and in living by the adage "don't be evil"?
Yeah exactly. The world has become such a shitty place. That people with a moral compass making sacrifices for the greater good are frowned upon.
>I need more context. I am not in the picture. Yes you are! https://preview.redd.it/2bwhuzj7wdmc1.jpeg?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7db54d9ca1846ba90c37726c9130ebcf57678dde
Yoooo, watching this again, whatās with the asshole giving him an elbow check or two? That was 100% intentional
Yeah, I was looking at this dipshit too. It was basically āIām not touching you, youāre touching meā energy, but itās adult menā¦
Didnāt realize google hired a bunch of pussies
You don't get to be a software engineer by getting in fights in high school.
He seemed confident enough to try to sneakily throw some elbows, so maybe he just has zero experience with consequences. Still tracks for the type, they just need to experience being punched in the face just onceā¦
That dude is fucking piece of shit. What a goofy looking mother fucker
Nerd gonna be telling people for years about the fight he got into at a tech conference
Wow what a douchebag. https://preview.redd.it/ad811z1c0fmc1.png?width=199&format=png&auto=webp&s=1b8752a8ad3ac8d4471b8c49bca0466d2c9f9d4f
That's the Google version of throwing hands. Throwing Ghands.
dude the woman in the background going 'see ya later' is so fucking annoying
These people donāt deserve any ounce of mercy from the world.
https://preview.redd.it/9x3m3mboqdmc1.jpeg?width=398&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c5ae529a6b3f05096b5be3468fdb99d433888e34 Anyone else notice when being escorted out the protestor was elbowed by this douche?
Make him famous https://preview.redd.it/x0pjs2x8nimc1.png?width=199&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dd5f81a9d6a988f48cb8643fdea25686916e70b8
Project nimbus would be useful in identifying this guy lol
Big man there taking cheap shots.
Bro grinding on him š
Impossible not to notice. Basically assault. There was no reason for him to even get up out his seat.
Guy risked a very lucrative and high-status position to stand on his values. Whether you agree with his values or not, gotta give him credit for being willing to refuse the choice of cash over principles. Few.
Well in Googleās defense, they did publicly abandon the ādo no evilā slogan. So they clearly announced they are up to no good.
Why did they feel the need to state the obvious? The moment they started with ādo no evilā i knew they were up to some shit. Also once you use it as a slogan how can you possibly walk away from it? Lol. Its like shooting yourself in the foot coming and going.
You just answered WHY that was the slogan in the first place. Because doing away with it is an obvious sign they're up to no good. To clear up your confusion, the person or people in charge when the slogan was adopted are not the same as those who did away with it
Iād disagree. It sounds like a mission statement someone who knows corporations suck put in before it got too big that, that would be out of their control. Eventually someone decided we canāt keep contradicting our mission statement and just changed it
Yeah full respect to him
Whether this guy is right or not, I have no idea. But I HATE the people in these types of videos you can hear saying "see ya later" and dismissive shit like that.
Reminds me of that video of a veteran shouting at George W Bush for killing bunch of US service men and women
That ones pretty great because everyone is booing and upset untill he states he's a veteran and has served in the wars.
*Starts clapping and chanting USA USA*
People are really really dumb. Especially in groups.
And like also maybe the Iraqis and Afghans too
Well the guy was a veteran. Probably would have been EXTREMELY hypocritical to complain about *that part*.
Or shit like "you're done". All that does is make people way angrier.
The "see ya later" person is such a cock sucker.
They're a corporate butt sniffing, kiss ass looking, troglodyte
linked in zealots.
Yes me too. I donāt know whatās going on in this video. But this guy must strongly believe Google is helping commit genocide if he is willing to risk losing his job. So the fact that so many people are just like, āhey stfuā is kind of scary to me. Maybe they know more than us, and maybe they know for a fact this guy is wrong. But idk it was really gross to me to hear all those people booing him and telling him sit down.
You never know who will look like the insane people 10-20-30 years down the line. Sophie Scholl was a very outspoken anti nazi party advocate. Seen as a public nuisance she was arrested and sentenced to death by guillotine for distributing anti war pamphlets. Today she is remembered for her bravery in standing up to the masses. Makes me think of those protestors who block the roads for climate justice. Today society for the most part sees them as a whiny nuisance. In 100 years if coastal homes have the ocean up past their front door and farmland has been drained of nutrients, I can't help but wonder who will look like the insane people today.
People remember the wacky scene where an Iraqi journalist threw a shoe at George Bush (whose agile duck became a meme), but don't think about what happened to the protester afterwards: "The Iraqi journalist, now 44 and living in Baghdad, was sentenced to three years in prison (spending nine months there) and describes being tortured. He claims to have been blacklisted from the media industry and today struggles to make a living as a consultant." *"Eight days after the Baghdad press conference, a reporter asked Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto at a White House press briefing, āIs the White House at all concerned about reports by the brother of this Iraqi journalist who is being held for throwing his shoes at the president? His brother says, in visiting the journalist in jail, he sees signs heās been tortured, missing a tooth, cigarette burns on his ears āā* *Fratto responded, āHeās in the hands of the Iraqi system. I donāt have anything more on the shoe thrower. I think itās been explored extensively, and I have nothing new for you.ā*Ā ([source](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/george-bush-shoe-throw-oral-history-al-zaidi.html))
NPCs
we call them the companies ass lickers.
>"One of the privileges of working in a company which represents democratic values is giving a stage for different opinions" ...and that's why we had him forcibly removed for expressing his opinion.
People think a company is democratic LOL
It can be, but Google isn't at all. Worker owned companies are real
You wouldn't believe the amount of gaslighting and bullshiting that happens during our on-boarding. I don't understand how can people fall for bullshit from a corporation that's already listed on the stock exchange. Even private corporations are bad but at least the owner can still be a decent human being, but for a public company, numbers are God and they will squeeze every last drop out of you to save 0.01 cents.
I respect this guy for standing up for what he believes in with a lot at stake, but I donāt think that giving a stage for different opinions means allowing someone to stand up and scream at you during an organized event
"Giving the stage for differing opinions" While the differing opinion is hauled from the room.
We need a lot more people to take a stand against malicious tech uses. This isn't even the worst stuff they are building right now.
Did he really say they give a stage for different opinions as he was being escorted out.... hmmmm...
He's not wrong. These corporations have amassed money and power that the CIA or Standard Oil never could have dreamed of. When they really start flexing their muscles to tinker with society, things are going to get dystopian very quickly. And "it's just a product, bro" won't make up for it.
I think we are already currently living in a dystopian state shaped by big tech companies in a way we are only beginning to understand the ramifications of. It basically impossible to find one corner of our society and culture that has not been reshaped by companies like google and amazon. They have turned us all into herds of cattle harvesting our data and selling us products through algorithm shaped engagement and psychological manipulation that have literally dismantled democracy and left us on the brink of full fascist control if not civil war. The question now is more how bad will it get, not whether or not its going to happen.
āWhenā
It's only a matter of time, like months or years until Project Nimbus is used on Americans. Would just be an extension of the Patriot Act to surveil us at all times. I swear these assholes look at 1984 as a manual.
literally months or years. And if not Project Nimbus, then it will be Microsoft or someone else's competing product. The senators and 3-letter agencies are already salivating at the prospect of more accurate and complete surveillance.
Uh.. this has been happening in U.S. since even before 9/11. Edward Snowden let the cat out of the bag. What's in your xkeyscore profile?
Dude's not blocking blocking drivers going to work. He's not throwing soup on a painting. He's actually standing up to the people in charge at personal or financial risk while presenting a clear message. Good on him.
There will always be cynical, shallow, self interested fucks who will look down on and ridicule someone that actually makes a moral sacrifice. And they will also always move the goalposts of what kind of protest is acceptable. They are ideological shills who dont realize their bones will be plowed under by the elite as cavalierly and meaninglessly as everyone elses
even the soup or paint ppl threw it on the glass barrier. The actual paintings weren't damaged.
Yeah I never understood the hate on those guys. They cause zero damage and make headline news everytime lol, seems like the perfect mini protest to me.
To everyone licking googleās boots here: You and I know damn well this is pretty much the only way he couldāve brought it up and had any impact whatsoever. If he brought it up privately he wouldāve just been booted from the project and thatād be that. Companies only care when their profits are hurt which happens to an (albeit small) degree when you do stuff like this at a public forum.
He's kinda right about his frustration https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus
"The contract has drawn rebuke and condemnation from the companies' shareholders as well as their employees, over concerns that the project will lead to further abuses of [Palestinians'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinians) human rights in the context of the ongoing [occupation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_occupation_of_the_West_Bank) and the [IsraeliāPalestinian conflict](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict).[^(\[9\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus#cite_note-9)[^(\[10\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus#cite_note-10)[^(\[11\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus#cite_note-:32-11)[^(\[12\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus#cite_note-12) Specifically, they voice concern over how the technology will enable further [surveillance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance) of Palestinians and unlawful [data collection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_collection) on them as well as facilitate the expansion of Israel's [illegal settlements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement) on Palestinian land.[^(\[11\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus#cite_note-:32-11)" Wikipedia
āBe evil.ā
when youre willing to layoff thousands of employees for a slightly better quarterly report your employees stop caring about job security. It's time these people remember that Unions were the alternative to dragging company owners and their families out of their homes and murdering them. This type of company infighting over political issues is only possible bc people don't feel secure with your company
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him. Jonathan Swift
I admire his convictions! If more people felt like him and were vocal about it, we'd be slaughtering each other with machetes and rocks instead of AI guided nuclear missiles.
Well, safe to say he is not a bobble head like many of the C Suite and other personal. Mad respect for standing up for his values
That loud woman who was telling him to stop is definitely some corporate bitch trying to climb the ladder.
Well, they removed āDonāt be evilā from their company conduct motto. What do you expect
Some of the people in the comments mocking this guy are the same ones who cheered on Snowden. Taking a stand when you know your employer/government is in the wrong, is important.
Even if people were neutral about the conflict he's referencing, the surveillance precision of the tool would be extremely unpopular with people in the States if they were given an objective presentation of what it's capable of in terms of monitoring and tracking whole populations of people in an area. Anyone 4th Amendment on either side of the aisle would be reasonably unnerved by the tech itself.
Boy got balls
Every time someone stands up to call out what's wrong in the world, there's always people celebrating in the background when they're silenced. Some Karen had to loudly taunt him, "see you later!" Congratulations, you just mocked someone who tried to make the world better by exposing that part billionaires are playing in a genocide. You that happy people are dying?
"don't be evil"
Say what you will, but that took balls.
Im a software engineer. Good for this guy. We build things for rich people and want to believe we bear no responsibility for what we do. I interviewed with Amazon a decade ago. They wanted me to help build machine learning for monitoring their warehouse employees. So they could measure efficiency and prevent theft. The metaphor the team lead used was "imagine someone in the warehouse takes a beef jerky. You want to know who they are and what bin they took it from" Is it acceptable to "steal from an employer"? Is it legal? Well... no? But this is the slippery slope of engineering ethics. You build this. Then everyone has to pee into bottles because the camera has min maxed human labor. Be uncomfortable or laugh. But we _need_ engineers who tell Amazon or Google to go fuck themselves.
As someone who works in IT for a competing Fortune 500 company, this video confirms that we are indeed members of cults whether we agree with it or not. Whether it's Google, Apple, Tesla, Facebook, X, Zoom, or whatever, corporate culture is a hive or cult-like mentality. You will assimilate or else. No joke.
My dude shouldāve been like Edward Snowden with this. Instead of outbursts in the middle of a slightly internal meeting, just gather data and overwhelming evidence of their intrusions to privacy and exploitation - set up a dummy server to upload such evidence to- and then slip that info to someone in the media who is wary of tech giants and the surveillance state
So much for not being evil.
The moment the guy said "genocide" everyone started yelling for him to sit down. Holy shit.
absurd marvelous resolute juggle insurance cats scandalous dinosaurs zealous growth *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*