Googlers Stage Walkout to Protest Trump's Immigration Ban The coordinated protest is happening now across eight campuses.
By Andrew Tarantola •
This story originally appeared on Engadget
Numerous technology companies have already voiced their opposition to the Trump administration's executive order from Friday banning the immigrants and refugees from seven predominantly Muslim nations. Today, Google employees from eight campuses have staged a work stoppage and walkout to protest the order as well.
Super proud of all my fellow Googlers who showed up in a display of solidarity #NoBanNoWall #GooglersUnite pic.twitter.com/BvVip6eE6L
— Mike Doherty (@mikedoherty_ca) January 30, 2017
The employees are coordinating and documenting their protest using the #GooglersUnite hashtag. Google does not have an official comment on the situation but a source within the company did state that the company supports the employees' rally.
This is @google right now. #googlersunite pic.twitter.com/arSNpveFUp
— PGK (@patrickgage) January 30, 2017
There are at least 187 Googler families affected by there #MuslimBan. Today we stand with them. #Googlersunite #NoBanNoWall pic.twitter.com/s7cd5xf1XO
— Bri Connelly (@bricon5) January 30, 2017
According to company reps, Google Assistant project manager Soufi Esmaeilzadeh acted as the keynote speaker for the Mountain View campus. Esmaeilzadeh, an Iranian-born Canadian citizen who has lived in the U.S. for 15 years (and employed by Google for the last five), was on a plane from San Francisco en route to Zurich when Trump's executive order took effect. After conferring with Google's legal team, she returned to the U.S. via Boston and arrived back in the Bay Area yesterday. In addition to Esmaeilzadeh, other employees affected by the order spoke out as well as Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai and company co-founder, Sergey Brin. The company estimates more than 2,000 employees participated in total.
Update: That didn't last long. According to eyewitnesses, the San Francisco branch of the protest has apparently already headed back to work.
Aaaaaaaaand the Googlers are done. Protest duration: less than an hour pic.twitter.com/pOQRUqKbqh
— Blake Montgomery (@blakersdozen) January 30, 2017
