A Google employee who rose to prominence as the business’s most vocal critic of a deal with the Israeli military said on Tuesday that she would be quitting the company, alleging that it had attempted to retaliate against her for her activism.
I am leaving @Google this week due to retaliation & hostility against workers who speak out. Google moved my role overseas immediately after I opposed its $1B AI/surveillance contracts with Israel. And this is far from an isolated instance.https://t.co/V4y05kOYQv pic.twitter.com/eRMrzTPYfb
— Ariel Koren (@ariel_koko) August 30, 2022
Ariel Koren, a marketing manager for Google’s educational products division and a seven-year employee, informed coworkers in a message that she would be leaving the firm at the end of the week.
She spent more than a year coordinating opposition to Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion deal between Google and Amazon to provide Israel and its military with computing resources.
Ms. Koren assisted in the distribution of petitions, lobbied executives, and spoke with media outlets in an effort to persuade Google to rethink the transaction.
Then, she claimed, in November, Google sent her a startling ultimatum: Accept to move to So Paulo, Brazil, within 17 business days, or you’ll lose your job.
Ms. Koren was located in Mexico City and advertised educational products to Latin America before relocating to San Francisco during the epidemic.
She claimed, however, that neither the mandated relocation nor its urgency had a clear business reason, and a Brazilian supervisor had informed her that employees in So Paulo were working remotely due to the epidemic.
Her allegation was looked into by Google and the National Labor Relations Board, but no violation was discovered.
In addition to denouncing Google’s treatment of Palestinians and its censoring of employees who support them, fifteen other Google employees recorded audio testimony to YouTube on Tuesday, pleading with the business not to cooperate with Israel.
All but two of the employees used their own names. They made their statements public at the same time Ms. Koren left the business.
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