BREAKING—70+ protesters, including current & former @Google workers organizing with #NoTechForApartheid, were removed from the UN HQ for protesting the UN’s complicity w/ big tech
@unitednations security attempted to coerce protesters into removing their clothing & profiled people with Arabic text written on their clothing. Protesters stayed to picket outside to demand NO AI FOR GENOCIDE
The protest follows the release of UN’s @francesca.albanese.unsr.opt’s report exposing how tech fuels Israel’s apartheid state & genocide in Gaza. She called on UN member states to impose sanctions & a full arms embargo on Israel, w/ demands for militarized AI, cloud & surveillance tech to be regulated as dual-use given their proven capacity to be used as weapons
While their own legal experts slam big tech, the UN hosted its annual “AI for Good” Summit in Geneva last week, honoring Amazon, Google, Microsoft, IBM. We condemn the UN’s laundering of the AI industry’s reputation, touting the supposed benefits of AI that is dangerous, faulty & to date unregulated — while Israel uses this tech as a weapon to power the genocide in Gaza, leading to unprecedented death & destruction
In direct retaliation for her report, the Trump admin just sanctioned Albanese, a blatant attempt to silence the Human Rights Council’s condemnation of the role of tech in Israel’s genocide
The report echoes what tech workers have been organizing toward for years. Since 2021, Amazon & Google workers w/ No Tech for Apartheid have demanded an end to the corporations’ $1B cloud & AI Project Nimbus contract w/ Israel. This contract has led to the deployment of Google AI by the Israeli military, & the collection, storage, & searchability of Palestinians as “target” data in Amazon’s cloud
In this moment of clarity around AI dangers—not only in its use by militaries, but also in the deportation of migrants & destruction of energy grids through rampant data center expansion—the UN’s decision to sanitize big tech is appalling
NO AI FOR GENOCIDE. NO TECH FOR APARTHEID. AI ARMS EMBARGO NOW
Are you a Google/Amazon worker? Join NOTA: solidarity.notechforapartheid.com/join
