Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins/Futurism. Source: Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images; Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
While workers at some tech corporations are demanding their executives cancel government contracts in principle, workers at other companies are pleading with leadership to protect them from government raids and physical violence.
new bomb reporting from wired It turns out that at least one federal agent last tried to break into Google’s office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, following the shooting death of Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretty.
In response to internal concerns about what Google’s senior leadership is doing to keep its employees safe, the company’s head of security and risk operations reportedly said that “an officer arrived at the reception without notice,” attempting to gain entry. Ultimately, the agents “were not granted entry because they did not have a warrant, and immediately left.”
Google did not respond wiredRequest for comment. According to the publication’s sources, the company’s key leadership, CEO Sundar Pichai and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, are maintaining silence internally about Preeti’s murder. This is in contrast to DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean, who has taken a clearly outspoken stance.
“This is absolutely shameful,” Dean wrote in reply A video of Preeti’s murder at the hands of six Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers over the weekend.
He further said, “Agents of a federal agency are unnecessarily escalating a case and then killing a helpless civilian whose crime appears to be using his cell phone camera.” “Every person regardless of political affiliation should condemn this.”
faced extreme violence American citizen And non citizens There have been renewed calls for similar calls at the hands of ICE agents. Revoke or defund the agencyWhich was formed in 2003.
In response to violence, more than 800 technical staff have signed an open letter calling on their companies to cut ties with ICE. At the time of writing, at least 100 of them referenced Google or its parent company, Alphabet, in their signatures.
And with anti-ICE protests intensifying nationwide, maintaining silence is becoming an untenable position for tech giants like Google.
More on ICE: ICE is scanning citizens’ faces, telling them they are being entered into a terrorism database
