Petition circulates at Google for the giant to end its contracts with the police

After Microsoft, a protest movement is also being organized at Google. A petition signed by several hundred employees of the American giant calls on it to cancel its partnerships with the police.

The text thus invites the company to " take real measures to dismantle racism ", directly echoing the demonstrations against police violence in the United States following the death of George Floyd.

Over 1,600 signatories

According to a Twitter account associated with the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the petition has already gathered more than 1,600 signers on Tuesday, June 23. The account also publishes the content of the text, which calls on the group's CEO, Sundar Pichai, to stop selling his technology to the police.

This request evokes the initiatives already taken by IBM and Amazon, which recently announced to stop selling their facial recognition technologies to the police. In the present case, however, the petition is more a response to a press release issued by Sundar Pichai on June 17.

The leader announced more racial equity within Google, saying he wanted to increase the proportion of people of color in leadership positions. The web giant also announced the creation of a $ 175 million fund to support creators of African-American companies.

Google says no

For the signatories, who say they are "incredibly disappointed" with the response from their company, the effort is too modest. The petition calls on the group to go further by stopping the sale of technology to the police, adding, "  Why help the institutions responsible for the knee on George Floyd's neck to be more effective?" " The signatories also accuse the political action committee (PAC) of their employer of encouraging them to make donations and then donating them " to racist politicians and white supremacists".

More specifically, the employees are targeting the police in Clarkstown, New York, with which Google has signed a contract for a Cloud offer. The petition also criticizes the indirect support given to an Arizona sheriff watching over people crossing the border between Mexico and the United States.

In a statement, Google said, however, that the company did not intend to end its cooperation with the government or the police. A spokesperson said, " We are committed to making a significant difference in the fight against systemic racism, and our employees have made more than 500 product suggestions in the past few weeks, which we are reviewing ." If the company says it has "very clear AI principles that prohibit the use or sale for surveillance purposes ", it adds that its software will remain available to the police.

Reference: 

https://lifestyle.thecable.ng/dbanj-demands-n100m-from-rape-accuser/?unapproved=99322&moderation-hash=98d0fb0a0e47969983698081315023e0#comment-99322
https://timemanagementninja.com/2019/09/time-management-ninja-book-now-available/comment-page-1/#comment-135422
http://blog.foam.org/2013/02/interview-foam-talent-call-esther.html?showComment=1592891204501#c1865528967403698162
https://www.edocr.com/user/piyusharma1717

https://www.milesplit.com/discussion/160750