A number of protests were held against Google's practices involving labor and its contract to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services; Google terminated 28 employees on Wednesday. 

The action was the response to nine protests of Google workers in New York and Sunnyvale offices. The protesters were arrested and detained.

Employee Termination

To reactions to the protests, Chris Rackow, Google's vice president of security globally, wrote an internal memo which confirmed that 28 employees were laid off after the investigation ended. 

The note brought to attention that the incident would be followed by continuing investigations, hinting on possible other actions to ensue in the future.

The Root Cause

The protests was called by the "No Tech For Apartheid" organization who specifically targeted the project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract made between Google, Amazon and the israeli government. Opponents of the company stated that Google partnering with the Israeli government and its military through providing both cloud solutions and AI tools might contribute to human rights violations in the region.

Reactions and Allegations

The allegedly fired employees and the organizers of the close out event termed the terminations as retribution for the event and accused Google for dealing with the event poorly. The workers contended that they ought to have the right of peaceful protest and demanded the accompaniment of top executives regarding their issues. Moreover, they expressed their bewilderment of the silence response from the same company executive.

Google's Response

In reacting to the protests and termination of concerned employees, Google again affirmed its prowess at offering governments globally cloud computing as part of its objectives. Nonetheless, the organization went on to state that its work was aimed at anything else, but the sensitive and unclassified military operations.

Conclusion

Striking off 28 workers after multi-town demonstrations sends a clear signal of the growing divide between the tech companies and their employees on the matter of moral concerns like government orders and the technology for military use. It underscores the difficulties that are encountered by corporations such as Google in respect to: the balancing of corporate interests, employee activism, and social notions. This story is expected to further develop in time as investigations intensify and reactions come to light: