As we wrote earlier,, tech companies are deeply complicit in the current genocide in Gaza as well as the broader oppression in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Continue reading “Tech workers face retaliation for Palestine solidarity”
The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media has released a new report titled, “Delete the Issue: Tech Worker Testimonies on Palestinian Advocacy and Workplace Suppression.” The report, the first of its kind, shares testimonies gathered from current and former employees in major technology companies, including Meta, Google, PayPal, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Cisco. It highlights their experiences supporting Palestinian rights in the workplace and the companies’ efforts to restrict freedom of expression on the matter.
From 7amleh on November 11, 2024
Employees at Cisco revealed to WIRED the challenges they’ve encountered while petitioning for the cancellation of contracts with Israel and greater recognition of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
By Paresh Dave for WIRED on October 30, 2024
As I write this piece, an Israeli airstrike has hit makeshift tents near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, burning tents and people alive. The Israeli military bombed an aid distribution point in Jabalia, wounding 50 casualties who were waiting for flour. The entire north of Gaza has been besieged by the Israeli Occupying Forces for the past 10 days, trapping 400,000 Palestinians without food, drink, and medical supplies. Every day since last October, Israel, with the help of its western allies, intensifies its assault on Palestine, each time pushing the boundaries of what is comprehensible. There are no moral or legal boundaries Israel, and its allies, will not cross. The systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestine, which has been the basis of the settler-colonial Zionist project since its inception, has accelerated since 7th October 2023. From Palestine to Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, Israel and its allies continue their violence with impunity. Meanwhile, mainstream western news media are either silent in their reporting or complicit in abetting the ongoing destruction of the Palestinian people and the resistance.
Continue reading “Tech companies’ complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and Palestine”
Government involvement in content moderation raises serious human rights concerns in every context. Since October 7, social media platforms have been challenged for the unjustified takedowns of pro-Palestinian content—sometimes at the request of the Israeli government—and a simultaneous failure to remove hate speech towards Palestinians. More specifically, social media platforms have worked with the Israeli Cyber Unit—a government office set up to issue takedown requests to platforms—to remove content considered as incitement to violence and terrorism, as well as any promotion of groups widely designated as terrorists.
By Jillian C. York and Paige Collings for Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on July 26, 2024
Kunstmatige intelligentie zou ervoor zorgen dat er tijdens oorlogen minder burgerdoden vallen. In realiteit vallen er juist meer. Want waar mensen worden gereduceerd tot datapunten, voelt vuren al snel als objectief en correct.
By Lauren Gould, Linde Arentze, and Marijn Hoijtink for De Groene Amsterdammer on July 24, 2024
We have been demanding that Google cut its ties to Israel’s apartheid government for years, and we’re not stopping now.
By Mohammad Khatami and Zelda Montes Kate Sim for The Nation on April 29, 2024
Two Google workers have resigned and another was fired over a project providing AI and cloud services to the Israeli government and military.
By Billy Perrigo for Time on April 10, 2024
A little-discussed detail in the Lavender AI article is that Israel is killing people based on being in the same Whatsapp group as a suspected militant. Where are they getting this data? Is WhatsApp sharing it?
By Paul Biggar for Paul Biggar on April 16, 2024
Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants.
By Bethan McKernan and Harry Davies for The Guardian on April 3, 2024
Google employees are staging sit-ins and protests at company offices in New York and California over “Project Nimbus,” a cloud contract with Israel’s government, as the country’s war with Hamas continues.
By Caroline Haskins for WIRED on April 16, 2024
A protest is planned Saturday at a Chicago Apple store where workers say managers disciplined staff—and fired an employee—for wearing pins, bracelets, or keffiyeh in support of Palestinian people.
By Caroline Haskins for WIRED on April 2, 2024
Ferras Hamad claims in lawsuit that Meta fired him for trying to fix bugs causing the suppression of Palestinians’ Instagram posts.
From The Guardian on June 5, 2024
Since 2021, thousands of Amazon and Google tech workers have been organising against Project Nimbus, Google and Amazon’s shared USD$1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military. Since then, there has been no response from management or executive. Their organising efforts have accelerated since 7 October 2023, with the ongoing genocide on Gaza and occupied Palestinian territories by the Israeli state.
Continue reading “Tech workers demand Google and Amazon to stop their complicity in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people”
A loose coalition of 4,000+ founders, engineers, product marketers, community builders, investors, and other tech folks working towards Palestinian freedom. We aim to end the dehumanisation of Palestinians within the tech community, and to bring voice to those who speak up.
From Tech For Palestine
A large part of Israel’s economy and global influence are dependent on its military-technology complex that not only fuels the ongoing genocide in Gaza but is also exported to facilitate oppression around the world. In this thorough 2023 book, journalist Anthony Loewenstein makes explicit how Israel’s military industrial complex profits exorbitantly from exporting technologies “battle-tested” on occupied Gaza and the West-Bank.
Continue reading “On “The Palestine Laboratory””
In the most recent issue of Logic(s) Magazine, Edward Ongweso Jr. writes about Israel’s strategy towards Gaza called “mowing the lawn”: bursts of horrifying violence – a collective punishment of Palestinian people – followed by “calmer” periods where survivors are left to bury the dead, and rebuild their infrastructure while Israel continues to deepen its occupation.
Continue reading ““Mowing the lawn”: The weaponisation of water and technology in Palestine”
The censorship and silencing of Palestinian voices, and voices of those who support Palestine, is not new. However, since the escalation of Israel’s violence on the Gaza strip since 7 October 2023, the scale of censorship has significantly heightened, particular on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. In December 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a 51-page report*, stating that Meta has engaged in systematic and global censorship of content related to Palestine since October 7th.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: Meta systemically censors and silences Palestinian content globally”
In this interview, Matt Mahmoudi explains the Amnesty report titled Automating Apartheid, which he contributed to. The report exposes how the Israeli authorities extensively use surveillance tools, facial recognition technologies, and networks of CCTV cameras to support, intensify and entrench their continued domination and oppression of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories (OPT), Hebron and East Jerusalem. Facial recognition software is used by Israeli authorities to consolidate existing practices of discriminatory policing and segregation, violating Palestinians’ basic rights.
Continue reading “Automating apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories”
By now we know that generative image AI reproduces and amplifies sexism, racism, and other social systems of oppression. The latest example is of AI-generated stickers in WhatsApp that systematically depict Palestinian men and boys with rifles and guns.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: Generative/ing AI Bias”
By contrast, prompts for ‘Israeli’ do not generate images of people wielding guns, even in response to a prompt for ‘Israel army’.
By Johana Bhuiyan for The Guardian on November 3, 2023
We at the Racism and Technology Center stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We condemn the violence enacted against the innocent people in Palestine and Israel, and mourn alongside all who are dead, injured and still missing. Palestinian communities are being subjected to unlawful collective punishment in Gaza and the West Bank, including the ongoing bombings and the blockade of water, food and energy. We call for an end to the blockade and an immediate ceasefire.
Continue reading “Standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people”
A report validated Palestinian experiences of social media censorship in May 2021, but missed how those policies are biased by design.
By Marwa Fatafta for +972 Magazine on October 9, 2022
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.