Google Co-founder Sergey Brin Criticizes UN Report, Sparking Controversy Over Tech's Role in Israel-Gaza Conflict

Google's Sergey Brin Calls U.N. Report on Big Tech's Relationship With Israel 'Antisemitic'

You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. Last month, the United Nations released a report alleging that many major global corporations, including several Big Tech companies, have profited off of Israel's ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza because of their insistence on continuing to do business with the Israeli government and military. In response, according to internal messages seen by the Washington Post, Google co-founder Sergey Brin told employees that the U.N. is “transparently antisemitic." Cool. Brin's response came in an internal forum for employees of Google's artificial intelligence arm DeepMind, screenshots of which were shared with the Post. “With all due respect, throwing around the term genocide in relation to Gaza is deeply offensive to many Jewish people who have suffered actual genocides," Brin wrote. "I would also be careful citing transparently antisemitic organizations like the UN in relation to these issues." A United Nations Special Committee, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) have all called Israel's ongoing actions in Gaza a genocide. It's unclear if Brin believes all of those organizations are also grounded in antisemitism or are "throwing around the term genocide." In a statement to the Post, Brin said that his comments were in reference to “an internal discussion that was citing a plainly biased and misleading report." The report in question concluded that Googleâ€"along with other Big Tech firms like Amazon and Microsoftâ€"by continuing to work with Israel, are partaking in a “joint criminal enterprise†and that their respective business-as-usual approaches "ultimately contribute to a whole economy that drives, supplies and enables this genocide." It specifically points to Google's work on Project Nimbus, a billion-dollar project aimed at providing cloud computing infrastructure and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government and military. The company also reportedly "rushed" to sell more AI tools to Israel following the events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked and killed more than 1,200 Israelis. Google's decision to continue working with the Israeli government has become a major point of contention among employees. Some of the company's employees took part in protests and sit-ins on Google campuses, organized by the group No Tech for Apartheid. Google responded by firing about 50 employees who participated in the demonstrations. Additionally, the company dropped a prior pledge not to use AI in the development of surveillance tools or weapons, opening up new avenues for profit that will likely come at the expense of those who will be targeted by such tools. According to the Washington Post, Brin's comments on the UN "confused and upset some employees." It doesn't seem like he'll be getting fired over it, though.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin calls U.N. 'transparently antisemitic' after report on tech firms and Gaza

His comment on an internal company forum came in response to a United Nations report alleging that Google profited from "Israel's genocide," screenshots show. Google co-founder Sergey Brin called the United Nations "transparently antisemitic" on Saturday in an internal forum for employees, according to screenshots reviewed by The Washington Post and verified with a current member of the forum. His comments came in response to a U.N. report released last month that alleged technology firms including Google and its parent company Alphabet had profited from "the genocide carried out by Israel" in Gaza by providing cloud and AI technologies to the Israeli government and military. "With all due respect, throwing around the term genocide in relation to Gaza is deeply offensive to many Jewish people who have suffered actual genocides. I would also be careful citing transparently antisemitic organizations like the UN in relation to these issues," Brin wrote in a forum for staff at Google DeepMind, the company's artificial intelligence division, where workers were debating the report, according to the screenshots. The U.N. report was authored by its special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Italian legal scholar Francesca Albanese. The U.S. representative to the U.N. has asked for her removal, accusing her of antisemitism and bias against Israel. Critics of Israel have said its war in Gaza meets the definition of genocide but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected those claims, saying his country is defending itself against an attempted genocide by Hamas. The Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, has said the war has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. "My comments came in response to an internal discussion that was citing a plainly biased and misleading report," Brin said in a statement provided by his spokesperson. Google and the United Nations did not respond to requests for comment. Brin rarely comments in the internal forum, which is hosted on Google Chat and has nearly 2,500 members, many of them AI researchers. His accusation against the U.N. confused and upset some employees, according to the forum member and screenshots reviewed by The Post. Google's leadership has previously clashed with and fired workers who protested the company's dealings with Israel after its military action in Gaza following the Hamas attacks on the country on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 people. The company moved to sell its AI tools to Israel's military after the incursion by the militant group, The Post reported in January. Brin immigrated to the United States as a child with his parents, Russian Jews who sought to escape the antisemitism they faced in the Soviet Union, according to the 2009 book "Googled: The End of the World as We Know It," by Ken Auletta. Brin and Google co-founder Larry Page left their daily roles at the company in 2019. But Brin has become involved with Google's efforts to compete in AI following the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022. The U.N. report names corporations that the organization's special rapporteur Albanese says should be held accountable for Israel's military action in Gaza. It claims American tech giants have capitalized on a lucrative opportunity created by its military's expanding need for computing services and cloud storage, driven by the copious data generated by Israel's control of Gaza. The report highlights a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract that Israel awarded to Google and Amazon in 2021 called Project Nimbus, claiming that they "stepped in with critical cloud and AI infrastructure," after Israel's internal military cloud overloaded in the wake of the Hamas attacks. Amazon declined to comment. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Last week, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations called on the secretary general of the U.N. to condemn Albanese's activities and remove her from her role, reiterating a request it made earlier this year opposing the renewal of her appointment. Google has sought to publicly distance itself from Israel's national security agencies, but The Post reported in January that documents inside the company's cloud division showed staff directly helping the country's Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces access AI technology after the Oct. 7 attacks. In February, the company dropped a pledge not to use AI technology for weapons or surveillance from its ethical guidelines for the technology around AI. The broad guidelines, first issued in 2018 after employee protests against Google's military contracts, promise to pursue responsible AI that aligns with "widely accepted principles of international law and human rights." Some tech companies have cracked down on employee activism and political dissent following worker protests for doing business with the Israeli government. After Google fired some workers in 2024 for protesting its cloud contract with Israel, CEO Sundar Pichai said in a company memo that employees should not use their workplace to "fight over disruptive issues or debate politics." Brin's comment on the AI forum, named GDM Hot Goss in reference to Google DeepMind, followed a message from an AI research engineer who appeared dismayed by the report's findings but noted much of Google's AI investment focused on its virtual assistant app, Gemini. "The only bright spot here is that we're spending all of our time and money on Gemini and not anything more useful for genocide," screenshots show.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin slams 'transparently antisemitic' UN...

Google co-founder Sergey Brin called the United Nations "transparently antisemitic" after it published a report accusing the search giant and other tech companies of profiting from "the genocide carried out by Israel" in Gaza. Brin, who is Jewish, made his remarks in an internal Google DeepMind forum where some employees were discussing the allegations made by the UN's Human Rights Council, according to screenshots obtained by The Washington Post. "With all due respect, throwing around the term genocide in relation to Gaza is deeply offensive to many Jewish people who have suffered actual genocides," Brin wrote. "I would also be careful citing transparently antisemitic organizations like the UN in relation to these issues." Brin confirmed he chimed in about the "plainly biased" report. "My comments came in response to an internal discussion that was citing a plainly biased and misleading report," a spokesperson for Brin told the Washington Post. The Post has sought comment from Brin, Google and the UN. The HRC report was authored by Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. The US recently called Albanese "unfit" for her role, citing alleged antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, and requested that she be removed. A spokesperson for UN-Secretary General Antonio Guterres told The Post that human rights special rapporteurs like Albanese "are named by the Human Rights Council, made up of countries that are elected to the council." Guterres "has neither the authority to hire them nor does he have the authority to fire them," the spokesperson said. "So, while they do have a UN logo and UN title in their name, they work fully independently of the Secretary-General. He has no idea what they're going to do, where they are or what they say." The spokesperson added that "as we've said repeatedly, her opinions are not shared by the Secretary-General." The Post has sought comment from Albanese. Albanese, an Italian legal scholar, has been accused of making comments that are "widely viewed as antisemitic," including claims about the "Jewish lobby" and comparisons of Israeli policies to "Nazis and the Third Reich." Critics also claim she minimized Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, massacre by framing the violence as a response to Israeli oppression. Israel subsequently invaded Gaza to root out Hamas. The report by the HRC, which is headquartered at the UN office in Geneva, Switzerland, accused American technology companies of enabling Israel's military operations in Gaza by providing cloud and AI services. It specifically cited Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud contract awarded to Google and Amazon by Israel in 2021, claiming the companies "stepped in with critical cloud and AI infrastructure" to help Israel's military during its incursion into Gaza to wipe out Hamas' terror network. The Gaza Health Ministry, run by the Hamas government, claims over 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, though it does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied genocide accusations, saying the country is defending itself against Hamas' expressed desire to wipe Israel off the map. Hamas' brazen cross-border terror attack killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Brin, who was born in Moscow and immigrated to the United States when he was young, has amassed a net worth valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $149 billion. He stepped down as president of Google parent company Alphabet in 2019 but remains on the board and is a controlling shareholder. His comment in the Google DeepMind forum upset some employees, according to forum members. "The only bright spot here is that we're spending all of our time and money on Gemini and not anything more useful for genocide," one engineer reportedly wrote in the forum. Last year, Google fired 28 workers over their participation in a 10-hour sit-in at its New York and Sunnyvale, Calif., to protest the company's business ties with the Israel government. CEO Sundar Pichai later said in a company memo that employees should not use their workplace to "fight over disruptive issues or debate politics." Despite efforts to publicly distance itself from Israeli national security agencies, Google staff had directly assisted the country's Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces in accessing AI tools after the Oct. 7 attacks, the Washington Post reported earlier this year. In February, Google removed a pledge from its AI ethical guidelines that stated it would not use the technology for weapons or surveillance. The guidelines, first issued in 2018 after protests over military contracts, had previously committed to aligning AI development with "widely accepted principles of international law and human rights."