Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – So far, Google is known as a company that has an open-minded culture, aka being open to various views. However, this was not reflected when the war between the Hamas group and Israel broke out on October 7 2023.
According to Sarman Gilani, discussions about the conflict in the Middle East have become very sensitive within Google. Gilani is a software engineer who has joined Google since 2012.
“Everyone has to be super careful. Because even the slightest criticism of Israel will easily be considered an act of antisemitism,” said Gilani, quoted from the New York Times, Tuesday (9/11/2023).
This was agreed by other employees. They said that the topic of the Hamas and Israel war at Google had turned into an arena for mutual abuse between Muslim and Jewish employees.
This week, there was an open letter sent by several employees. They protested and accused Google of double standards.
“Freedom of expression can only be exercised by Googlers of Israeli nationality. Muslim Googlers or those of Palestinian descent do not have the same freedom,” wrote the letter.
The letter sparked anger among Googlers [red: sebutan untuk karyawan Google] Jewish. They said the letter had antisemitic undertones.
Employees who support Palestine think Google is siding with supporters of Israel. Meanwhile, Muslim employees who criticized Israel’s attacks seemed to receive unfair treatment.
“I didn’t feel safe saying what I wanted to say,” Gilani said.
A Google spokesperson said the internal friction occurred only among a handful of employees. The friction does not represent the thousands of employees who work at the Cupertino giant.
“This is a very sensitive time. We have many employees who have been personally impacted,” said Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini.
Polarization between supporters of Palestine and Israel is increasingly occurring in various business sectors in the United States (US). Specifically in the technology sector, Microsoft has blocked all employee posts discussing war topics.
Meanwhile, Meta is also experiencing a similar conflict with Google. Mark Zuckerberg’s company experienced friction after the company deleted internal employee messages that supported Palestine.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
Next Article
Sprayed Due to Hamas-Israel, FB Blocks 795,000 Content
(fab/fab)
Originally posted 2023-11-09 12:50:00.