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tv   The Bottom Line  Al Jazeera  April 29, 2024 6:30am-7:00am AST

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and we've got the democracy that we have, and this need them for everybody to vote the way we have. i think it would be unreasonable to see if it hasn't been progress. one, we have political rights, we can vote freedom of speech. we can criticize our covenant as much as we want. i'm not going to come to me and say if you vote for this issue, the answer from powell, if you do a b, c is going to do. but i know so that because i mean, wait and if maybe the point is where to take a lot for us to take us out of it. so it's very important you can hopefully by realistic at the same time i think that saw that some democracy does that. i think that was package nicely put everyone on inputs monday and i wanted to say something with a different that people what we saw was an opportunity for change or still figuring out what works for us and what doesn't. so it becomes very hard to explain to a generation of people were born born freeze, who are thrown into the system movie and told you have this right. you have that right, but not to me towards the responsibilities and not really being able to hold. and you just are comfortable with the incidence of a democracy is changing of leadership. so to see how healthy a democracy is,
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i think this year will be important in that sense. i often say i'm the change i want to see and that begins with me. one of them uh with young people is that we for to, that's way. if you don't inform yourself, you're educate yourself about the state of the economy about where we are currently standing and how you can make that change and contribute to it. so i'm the change, i don't want to see is the power hold in being a young person. i just go to university this year of a 1st year. i'm now able to vote. so i think for me, my role is the student is to like, i get everybody else. you also just team, you're interested in making a difference. i love to saying that one job of what's in that, which means nothing much. can you send me in that one some week? so if 20 so that the invoices agreed to connect to make changes to voices
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a view that was something you could do more in 5 years than this happened in 30 years. and that is that i can tell you guys, i'm so grateful to you for sharing these valuable insights into the state of south africa in the future. as you see us in this beautiful setting bits university, your university, my university to thank you for speaking to alpha 0. all right, well that's it for me down jordan, for now on a quick reminder, you can find much more information on websites. how does it come? there? it is. the news continues here now to 0 off the bottom line. try to find some watching by from the one of the biggest selections of 2020 pools in the general election. will administer now render movies be taking increase its food across the country? how will economic uncertainty and you've some employment swaying,
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focused in key states, and will the media be able to cover the vote reading? i'm fairly ongoing coverage. the in the as an actions on out, is there a, a hi, i'm steve clements and i have a question. what role are some of the americas tech giants, including google meta and amazon planning and support of israel's war crimes against palestinians? let's get to the bottom line, the flying drones bit lingering this guy waiting to identify a target and then firing a missile. artificial intelligence that provides 247, surveillance and spies on a person's political affiliation from the data on his or phone algorithms that selectively sensor content blocking freedom of expression and access to information . these are all tools in the arsenal of governments around the world. but put to use to be fully today by israel against the palestinians. now tech workers across the us are pushing back and summer,
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refusing to have any part in the work. crimes committed by israel. but what kind of impact and this growing moving have. and how is big tech reacting today? we're talking with seldom montez a no tech for a part height activist and software engineer who was fired from google last week for protesting its dealings with israel. and paul, bigger a software developer and entrepreneur who recently founded the tech for palestine initiative. thank you so much to both of you for joining us. and let me just start with useful that i'd like our audience to have a deeper understanding of what i just commented on about, you know, the many different dimensions that software firms, social media firms, our, we're all talking about algorithms with a i. but how does a way in to this moment in the gaza is real crisis a? yeah, so i think that um, for example, like, specifically a google um with project numbers, which is a 1200000000 dollar contract with these early government and military. i think what
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we see a lot of is, is military contracting basically happening with different governments in this case, google providing a i to these really government and not being honest about the use cases in which they're supposed to be used. they say all of the time that this isn't directed at military use. but nonetheless, we see very concerning reporting coming out of palestine about the use of it and surveilling palestinians and making a kill is the palestinian, such as with lavender in, in tracking that killed list with where's daddy? um and also targeting buildings and infrastructure shifts such as with the gospel. so i am starting to notice a lot of this aligning with when product numbers was signed with the israeli government. but back in 2021. we haven't seen the scale of mass destruction that we're seeing happening and goes up until this year until last year. um and that
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aligns with the timing of entering that contract and as a tech worker, it's very concerning to me that this a i is being created by workers may not know the impacts of what their labors having on the world in the past. um, so the, the google ceo, sender pitch, i said we are not in the business of war, but our use basically saying your company was in the business of war the, i think it, it, it currently is in and beyond just project nimbus. um google hy, this contracts with the us department of defense. and there has been a, a history of anti militarism organizing amongst workers. and maybe google hasn't been directly in the business of war in the past, but they have tried and it's only been because of employee pushed back because of employee organizing that that hasn't happened sooner. and what we're seeing now is a response to, to, to our efforts to say no, no tech for genocide,
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no tech for parts. i know tech for warfare, no tech for oppression or surveillance. and at this point, i think like google has completely lost the idea of building for everyone at this point. they really are just building for profit, even if that means at the expense of human lives. paul, i read a, a, a post that you wrote, very powerful, one called i can't sleep, i recommend people look for it and read it. and it's, it raises something i've been struggling with myself cuz i have many, many contacts and friends in silicon valley. and the truth is that most of my friends think they are working on things that will advance a society that will make the world a better place that will solve you know, many problems. and i guess my question to you is, what is happened from your perspective? with the conscience and soul of silicon valley right now as you see it with this particular conflict, but with wars and conflicts and general. and i think that silicon valley does, does think of itself as building for uh for the future. and i'm trying to build for,
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for growth and scale and in ways that makes the world a better place. but i think that what exactly it means to make the world a better place is very much rooted in us narratives. so the united states has, has always been on a team, it, israel has always been you know, putting aside the needs of the past indians and ignoring the needs of, of, uh, the other people who are, who are press there. and so when they say, you know, we're making the world a better place, what, what it means is we're making the world a better place for america and for america's allies. so, you know, it's, it's hard to look at this in a way that isn't rooted in your, as long as you have, for example, which is, which is prompted to midnight. it states, especially since $911.00. and it's something where the, the, the, that they're talking about a bad counseling tech talk, for example, the fact that they have their bands tick tock. and the reason is because tick tock, even though it is a free speech mechanism, it is
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a free speech mechanism that goes against the needs of the united states. whereas the other social media networks, for example, google, linkedin, and meta are all a huge sensor in the, towards the new to united states. so it's never really been a bad. we're making something that's great for everybody. it's, it's really been a badge. the, you know, we are making things for the united states and, and honestly for, for money to how does, yeah, i know, go ahead please. zelda. yeah, i wanted to add that. i think a lot of times when engineers are told to build something, there is not a lot of critical thought about how that technology might eat misuse. so i think that like engineers tend to trust their executives. and i think back when google was an engineering company and not a business company, that may have been true that you could trust your leadership to build something that was actually supposed to try to make the world a better place. but at this point, we know we've seen our executives that google,
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for example, lie to us countless times about how the technology is being used. and i think it's really critical for engineers to also use questioning skills to say, okay, i'm building a drone to deliver, you know groceries to someone and how might that be misuse if we add a weapon to that drone and now it's being used to kill people instead, i think that most times engineers aren't in positions where they are directly impacted by the technology that they build. um, because most of the time where an incredibly privilege spaces. um, so we're not really the ones that are experiencing the impression that comes from that technology. and i think that that's why like from an education perspective, it's really important for engineers to, to be questioning our leadership to hold them accountable. and to make sure that the intent in which we build the things is actually being carried out in that way. paul, what in your experience made this crisis apply to palestinians right now um,
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something that you wanted to invest your career and credibility and it's, it's something where there is an objective wrong. the. the oppression of the pal students, the, the showings of, at this point, 41000 palestinians, official number. and the fact that tact is, is directly involved in it. right to the tech is not a quiet participant in it. tech is being extremely vocal and it's coming out on, on the side of the oppressor. and you're personally, as someone who's on an irish coming from the people whose identity is, is historically impressed. yeah, this isn't something that we can stand beside is all that, let me ask you something about a project. nimbus and the internal culture right now at google. google is a massive company with massive capacity and outreach in the world. but is there an
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awareness of developing a long employees as you just said, that they need to pay attention somewhat to what they're great ideas and their innovations are going to be applied to? yeah, i think that there's definitely an effort. i think that no tech for parts side was really, is really still trying to do that to in the context of specifically project nimbus . but beyond that, to raise questions of, if this, if this is a contract that google has signed, what other contracts might we not know about? what kind of transparency are we not receiving as employees? and how might our labor be use without our consent in ways that are going to hurt people? and i think that and the sit in action was especially powerful because there is a culture of trying to silence that. those sorts of questions that kind of defend um and it, we had raised through appropriate channels for, for years about project name base about like, hey,
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this is what these really government is saying. and this is what google smokes. people are saying about how the contract is being used and they're not lining up. so we just kind of want some answers about this. and none of the leadership really wanted to engage with our questions. and so at that point, like it took being disruptive in the workplace, it took like actually making a lot of a lot of um oh yeah, like take taking over the narrative and saying you can't silence or questions. these are valid questions to be asked and it took bravery to do that. um, it's a bravery for i was one of the 9 people who also got arrest in it. it took bravery to it to say, i'm not leaving until product name is dropped or until like you use for me out of here. and i know that that serves a bigger purpose than just me because i see now. so many people reach out to me saying, hey, i saw what you did and i want to join no tech for parts. i like how do i get involved, even in the face of all the refreshing that were that we've been experiencing as well. you were speaking about the bravery of those who have taken it, but what is the after effect the day after feel like?
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yeah, well i feel like, personally i had been experiencing actually a lot of a prospect and tossing and spying in the office for speaking up very loudly in the office about project and base and trying to spread awareness about it. i had ended up filing 14 h r concerns that didn't really get addressed whatsoever. and for me, part of taking that risk and knowing that, um that there was very likely for me a potential to lose my job because i was willing to risk arrest. i already knew that google didn't care about me. that doesn't make it too much easier. um, i have only been working and i've only been out of college for like almost 2 years at this point and very early in my career. but, but i think that any of the opportunities that i might lose right now, i will be worth it in the, in the grand scheme of things i, i think that it serves again like a purpose much bigger than mine. i. i will figure things out,
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the right doors will open up and the ones that have to stay close will stay closed . i personally don't have any interest in working for any place that wouldn't allow me to speak up and say, no tech for genocide. i think that good riddance with those places. um but nonetheless it is, it is something that i that i am leaning into my community a lot for support because there is community there. and i think that that's like about building the trust with the people around to make sure that you're facing these things alone. 5 years ago, there was a project, there was an, a project out the department of defense that google was very much a part of called project maven. and in that case, google's leaders did in fact join with its workers and it's engineers, and it withdrew from that project. what do you think has changed or do you think they're different in some way that, that google uh maintains as a role in project nimbus. now and, and,
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and did something different 5 years ago. um, i think honestly, it says one of us will be a huge part of it. is this lemma phobia. its the fact that um, the kinds of lives that no tech for far side are speaking up for and in defense of are not the lives that the united states, the government, um and google particularly care about their lives that have been already rendered indispensable by, by this current society here in the united states, and for many of us, we know that that's not the real case. we know that all of those lives matter. we know that i personally have felt so much immense grief around all of the death and destruction that we've seen coming out of guys that but i also think that it's an element of money. we've seen these companies grow so much more money hungry and even at the expense of, of i don't, i don't think that google cares about their workers the way that they used to say
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that they did receive that as well, with the layoffs. and so if google is almost at 2 trillion dollars evaluation and they're still having layoffs, even though theoretically, they really never needs a way anybody off. i think that just shows that they don't care as much about the workers as, as, as they do about the money that they're able to make for the execs to be able to continue to empower all their other platforms and technologies that are, are part of this picture that you've written about and, and commented on, one of them is what's app, what's app is a hugely popular communications device. how is whatsapp being woven into this war situation in ways that are public should be aware of? so i think to think so it's a realize a lot like zelda is saying very leadership and, and the workers are, are not on the same page. they're, they're actually is fundamentally within a lot of these organizations, a desire to be pro israel within google. there are an awful lot of people who are there. zohler mentioned all the,
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all the treatment that she was facing internally that's, that's something that we're here. it's been an every social media company and every big tech company, which, wherever, as a leadership are actively taking the side of those around, they're actively taking the side of genocide. so it's something where you're in, in, in the case of, of lots up it's, it's sort of unclear exactly where israel is getting lots of data for making the, that the bombings thought that were described in, in the us ninety's 72 article on lavender. but what is clear is dot meta is not doing anything about it. it is not protecting it to users. it is not protecting its workers from harassment, from other workers who, who are approaches. it's something where, where fundamentally, there myself and self mentioned design, it'd be a, that's certainly part of it. but it's also part of it is that these, these companies are hugely pro israel with a huge number of workers,
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both in israel and the u. s. a. who, who are aligned with walk israel is doing, and it's very, very disproportionate to that. but let me ask you, let me interrupt you here for a minute. so this is one of the things i don't understand is, is i can understand that pro is real stance inside of tech company. why aren't they demanding precision, as opposed to indiscriminate killing and bombing? this indiscriminate killing and bombing is the point. if you look before october 7th, right, this has been going on 75 years. no tech for part time was found was long before october 7th. the reason that they were trying to do is because there is no par sites in the west. thank adding jobs or jobs that has been block hated since 2005. the killing was have cut been happening for decades. the 2000 people were killed in in 2021 and the last 4. there was a war in 2014. so israel has been doing this for a long, long time, and the, the people who are, yeah you,
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you might describe yourself as pro as well. but i think you're, you're describing yourself maybe in a different sort of pro israel lights. what you're saying is that the, the people of israel have to have the right to life. and of course we have, we all agree with us. but what is, what is actually happening here is pro, is really policy. i'm the really, paul that has always been onyx thing, the west bank of taking over guys of taking over the entire land that was formerly palestine. and so when we're talking about pro has their own profile. so i'm, we're talking to a very different things. we're talking about, you know, supporting is riley political policy, which is a badge taking over the land from the palestinians. and when we say of call stands are really talking about being pro humanity pro, freedom for quality. zelda, we've been seeing these graphic pictures of struggles over college campuses and battles over essentially freedom of expression and freedom of protest. um, what's your take on that and how aligned are you or not with some of what we're
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seeing on campuses around the country. yeah, well i was at columbia university yesterday, so i feel like i'm with the students i, i am seeing the way that the, the, the united states is responding to all of this. they are really scared of worker power. they're really scared of student power. because students are also the future workers, and if they have that same energy brought into their workplace, is they're not going to be able to just tell employees to do as, as, as, as the, as their employer wishes. there's going to be a sense of, of questioning there and what i'm seeing in terms of google arresting their own employees in terms of college campuses calling of state trooper, for example in, in, in university texas or calling cops on their own students as well. is that they are afraid that the world powers afraid of what is taking place in these campuses in there and they're afraid of, of the tides that are shifting right now. and they're employing any means necessary
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for that repression. and they are trying to, to, to, to have people be afraid to speak up and to know what is right and to act within what is right and, and what we're seeing even more beautifully is, is resistance to that fear and is community and response to that fear and is finding joy with one another despite the fact that these violent mechanisms are being employed against us. well, what are the reform strategies? i mean, the technology world is so intertwined, and particularly among allies like the united states and israel. but i'd also put europe in that camp, japan, and you've got a lot of networks where it's just, we have a world where it's very, very hard to just say we're, we're no longer in twine. how do you be responsible today? a person of conscience in the tech world. what sorts of reforms do you want to see applied to this? yeah, i think that needs to be an awful lot of us for farms. but some, some it on the side of a i, we need to, to be focused on responsible, a, i,
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we need to have international agreements in the same way that we did after world war 2. after guys that we have to look at and say, how is a i being used, how is automation being used and then it talks against civilians. and i think we need to say that no point. sure to any day i be involved in any way in making a life or death decision. so that, that, that's one side of it. i think the other side of it is that we need to shine some light on everything that has been happening for right. as for, through acts all of the big tech companies and be open a batch the, the mechanisms of suppression. so the, the social media suppression in particular, how does it happen? who is the fact that his thumb is on the, is on the button who has control, who is able to make the decisions? because right now, the decisions are being made by a very, very small number of people, and those people are, are very aligned with each other and it's, it's the same movement that we see in,
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you know, every university is cracking down on students in the same way why does that every big tech companies cracking down on the truck halston in contents of the same way? every congressman is cracking down on on route, for example, or israel? why are all these things happening in the same way a real quickly last comment to use elda? as an activist, no tech for a part hide. how will you know whether you're making success? you're gaining ground or not? i feel like we are making ground. we're seeing a lot of resistance to that sir. um, i'm noticing, like i said, a lot of people have reached out have been interested in joining no tech for a part time, even in the face of all the repression, even in the face of the firings, even in the face of the arrest. i am also noticing that for me i part of part of why i did the sit in was because i wanted to see google held accountable and not just google tech companies in general held accountable for their profit and
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complicity in the genocide. and i'm already starting to see, i think the candidate house of commons recently had a hearing or something about putting forward a motion to have google answer to the fact that they provided a statement. in december of 2023. saying that project members wasn't directed at military use and that time magazine reported otherwise. and this was 2 days after our sit in, i think that we are making waves in, in the media and in people's hearts and minds. i think that we're inspiring people to take a stand even if it means doing a hard thing where there's risk associated. and i think ultimately i want to see workers rise up and take and take control of their own labor again. and to bring this struggle into the workplace is because um, google isn't the only place that is complicit in this genocide that is profiting from the satisfied and ultimately it's workers who have the power to end it. well, thank you to your both for your can during your time, today's elder montes x,
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google employee with no tech for a part hide in paul, bigger founder of tech for palestine. thank you so much to both of you for joining us. thanks for having us. thank you. so what's the bottom line? instead of honoring the bravery of young people across america in the world who are actually thinking for themselves and speaking their conscience, the exact opposite is happening. many private companies are creating a climate of fear and retribution when people there to speak about palestine and universities are inviting military style police to break up peaceful protests against israel's war and gaza work companies that did business with south africa during a part i complicit in propping up that racist state. yes, they were a growing number of american thinkers and politicians are saying that history is repeating itself now with israel. the broad tech industry is interwoven with american national security and it doesn't like to make choices of what conflicts they are in or where the red line should be. what that's exactly what should start
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happening. otherwise, these companies should be honest about the fact that they're actually providing the software and the hardware and the algorithms, the profit for more. and that's the bottom line. the july 2014. as is where the forces bombarded the gaza strip for 50 days. residents of the coming to the deaf and devastation seen through the eyes of palestinian capital mind lead, hama, who films and strikes the 2 thousands of lives. including his own garza, the last picture on, on the a very low cartons and public confrontations. young people across the u. k, a puts in their forties on the line to force the attention of the issues that much to, to that climate change is a symptom of
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a system that's breaking down. what every other root sales guy with action was to be left open to a democratic societies or one to allow for there to be no politician in this country has ever shut down an honest, peaceful, half generation changed on our era injustice for me is the driving force of why i do this to show people what it's like to live in places where injustice isn't something you read in. the news is something that happens to every single day. whether it's a war or natural disaster, whether it's political corruption, making sure that they understand. and this simple language is absolutely crucial. the cities already 50 percent evacuated, most of those people actually left in the early days of the world. i couldn't do this job without the best time remained best, produces the best fixes, and those of the people, the i rely on in order to be able to get that message out to the world of
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the
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israel continues his plumbing of guns, at least $25.00 on his commands, i've been killed in the last few hours. hello, i'm down, jordan, this is out just a run nice from don't know. so coming up nearly 900 people up interested in the us as a student that move much against the one does. it continues to grow. schools around in the philippines as age is extreme heat waiting shows no sign of cooling down and growing humanitarian crisis incidentally missed the fight for the armies lost from holding off for.

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