Tag: Tech for Palestine

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Input for the report of the Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory to the Human Rights Council 58th session by Tech for Palestine

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

Summary

Tech is a direct participant in Israel’s occupation of Palestine and genocide in Gaza. This participation comes in the form of suppressing Palestinian content on social media, creating cloud computing and other technology contracts, and through their support of the Israeli economy. This support comes due to significantly biased employees of these tech companies, many of whom previously were in the Israeli military.

Taking into account the ways in which the tech industry supports Israel’s apartheid and genocide:

  • suppressing Palestinian content on social media,
  • supporting the Israeli economy,
  • providing technology to the Israeli military, especially cloud computing and AI technology used in Israel’s genocide in Gaza,

we make the following recommendations:

For all tech companies:

  • Cease the practice of acquiring Israeli start-ups, including any founded or led by former members of the Israeli military.
  • Immediately shut down all fully owned subsidiaries based in Israel.
  • Remove Israeli citizens and former members of the Israeli military from the internal decision-making process as it pertains to cloud contracts with Israel.
  • End all contracts with Israeli companies, and ensure Israeli companies are ineligible for future contracts.
  • Immediately end all contracts with the Israeli military.

Additionally, for social media companies[3]:

Create firm, transparent standards by which requests to remove content submitted by the State of Israel or other Israel-affiliated organizations are vetted by non-Israeli citizens to ensure that the content in question is held to the same standard as all other requests.

Cease partnerships with the pro-Israel ADL to define policies regarding antisemitism.

Reject the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA’s) working definition of antisemitism, which dangerously conflates Judaism with the State of Israel, in favor of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism.

Remove former members of the Israeli military from positions of influence, particularly those that make or impact content policy or “Trust and Safety”.

Continue reading at https://updates.techforpalestine.org/israel-and-big-tech/