Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees to keep politics out of the workplace, saying it was “too important a time for us as a company” to be a distraction.
Pichai’s memo comes after the tech giant fired 28 employees over protests against Amazon’s $1.2 billion Project Nimbus contract with the Israeli government amid shelling against Palestinians. The No Skills for Apartheid group claimed that more than 20 workers were fired “indiscriminately,” but Google’s statement acknowledged that 28 of the employees involved had been fired.
Earlier, about nine people were arrested by police after hours of sit-ins at Google’s two offices in New York and Sunnyvale. They livestreamed their removal from the premises.
In a memo titled “Mission First,” Pichai reiterated that the company’s “policies and expectations are clear.”
Pichai said, “This is a business, and anyone who disrupts co-workers, makes them feel unsafe, attempts to use the company as a personal platform, fights over disruptive issues, or debates politics… This is not the place to take action.” Note. Pichai also said employees have a duty to ensure the company is an “objective and reliable” information provider serving “all users around the world.”
“When we go to work, our goal is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and usable,” Pichai said. “That takes precedence over everything else, and we expect our actions to be focused on reflecting that.”
Google will combine its software division, responsible for Android mobile software and the Chrome browser, with its hardware division, known for Pixel smartphones and Fitbit wearables. This is part of a broader plan to integrate artificial intelligence more widely across the company.
Pichai said the changes will “revitalize the Android and Chrome ecosystem” while helping to foster innovation.
The decision puts both businesses under the oversight of Google executive Rick Osterloh, who previously oversaw the company’s hardware group. Until recently, Google said it wanted to avoid giving its phone designers an unfair advantage over other major smartphone manufacturers that use Android, such as Samsung, Motorola, and Chinese companies such as Oppo and Xiaomi. , separated Android development from the hardware department. .
