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Google is censoring anti-ICE speech in the workplace as 1,200 employees call on the company to cut…

Brian Merchant · · ·12 min read
Commentary by Hex Index staff

The Silence Engine

Brian Merchant reports on a workplace rebellion being stifled before it can fully breathe. More than 1,200 Google employees have signed a petition demanding their company sever ties with immigration enforcement agencies. Yet the very platform meant for internal discourse has become a tool of suppression.

Memegen Muted

The internal meme board called Memegen has been a Google fixture since 2010. Employees used it to poke fun at leadership, policies, even the company itself. Now, criticism of ICE contracts disappears within minutes.

Google is censoring anti-ICE speech in the workplace as 1,200 employees call on the company to cut…

Brian Merchant writes, "Recently, the moderation team started banning memes and comments about ICE on the internal meme platform." One organizer, Alex, a full-time Google engineer, tells Merchant that forty staffers have had posts removed and received warnings.

The takedown notice reads plainly: "Your content violates Memegen's Community Guidelines, specifically because the content is focused on personal political opinions, statement or news. Please be advised that this is your final warning before a permanent ban."

Alex describes the atmosphere to Merchant: "The fear of speaking out is very strong. Most folks are afraid to discuss anything remotely political at work." Job insecurity after recent layoffs amplifies the silence.

"Whenever any questions related to ICE pop up in town halls, they either get outright deleted or simply don't show up in the AI Summarization for some reason."

Cloud Complicity

The petition names the infrastructure: Google Cloud powers CBP surveillance systems along the border. It stitches together Palantir's ImmigrationOS that ICE uses to track immigrants. Generative AI assists DHS with "workforce enablement."

Brian Merchant writes, "Google is powering this campaign of surveillance, violence, and repression." The Play Store blocks ICE-tracking apps that help communities stay safe. YouTube runs ICE recruitment ads.

Alex expresses near-universal rank-and-file support: "Almost everybody I spoke to is for divestment from ICE. Among rank and file employees, any opposition to that is very rare." Yet leadership has dodged all questions about ICE, CBP, or Google's role.

Critics might note that cloud infrastructure contracts are standard enterprise business — that singling out immigration enforcement ignores the broader reality that government agencies across all functions rely on the same platforms. The petition's moral clarity may not account for the diffuse nature of modern tech procurement.

Historical Amnesia

Google once tolerated dissent. In 2018, 20,000 workers walked out over sexual harassment policies. Co-founder Sergey Brin protested the federal administration's travel restrictions. Memegen was notoriously feisty throughout the 2010s.

Today, the company has fired 50 staffers for protesting a cloud contract with the Israeli military. The group No Tech for Apartheid now organizes the ICE petition, undeterred but diminished.

Brian Merchant notes that leadership has aligned closely with the current federal administration. Sundar Pichai attends White House events. Google donated millions to inaugural funds. Discussing politics is now technically off-limits on Memegen, though company policy remains permissible.

Wider Resistance

The story extends beyond Google. Uber and Lyft drivers in California demand back wages after years of theft — 10,000 signatures on a wage claim petition. Monterey Park residents halted a massive data center through door-to-door organizing in six weeks. A QuitGPT campaign claims 700,000 users pledging to drop paid AI tiers.

Brian Merchant writes, "Local communities delayed or cancelled 8bn worth of projects from late March 2025 to June 2025." Opposition unites strange allies: NIMBYs and environmentalists in Virginia, conservative activists and Democratic Socialists in Michigan.

Alex ends with words for tech workers everywhere: "You're not alone. You have support of your fellow workers in your company and across the industry. It's time we take responsibility for how our products are used for surveillance and violence."

Bottom Line

Google's censorship of internal ICE criticism reveals a company choosing institutional alignment over employee conscience. The 1,200 signers represent genuine moral urgency — but the silence engine is already running.

Sources

Google is censoring anti-ICE speech in the workplace as 1,200 employees call on the company to cut…

by Brian Merchant · · Read full article

Last week, hundreds of Google workers, outraged by the federal government’s mass deportation campaign and the killings of Keith Porter, Alex Pretti and Rene Good, went public with a call for their leadership to cut ties with ICE. The employees are also demanding that Google acknowledge the violence, hold a town hall on the topic, and enact policy to protect vulnerable members of its workforce, including contractors and cafeteria and data center workers This week, the number of supporters has passed 1,200; the full petition is at Googlers-Against-Ice.com.

As the signature count rises, employees say that Google is working to stifle speech critical of its ICE contracts: censoring posts on its companywide forum Memegen, issuing warnings to workers who post ICE-related content, and ignoring their calls to address the issue both privately and publicly.

In today’s edition of BITM, an inside look at the Google employees organizing to end the tech giant’s ties to ICE, and the tactics the company is using to silence them. Plus, updates on the widening resistance to big tech in other arenas, from gig work to data centers. Finally, for paying subscribers, the 5 worst AI ads of the Super Bowl, and what they portend for Silicon Valley. As always, thanks for reading, engaging, and supporting this work. And a special thanks to all you paid subscribers who make this entire project possible; I couldn’t do any of this without you.

“I see an outpouring of support for this call,” says Alex, a full-time Google engineer and one of the petition’s organizers. “Almost everybody I spoke to is for divestment from ICE.” Among rank and file employees, he says, “any opposition to that is very rare.”

Yet leadership has not acknowledged the petition, and has thus far dodged all requests to answer questions about ICE, CBP, or Google’s role in supporting the agencies. Like Amazon, Google operates cloud services for ICE and the DHS, and is a partner of Palantir, one of the biggest technology providers for those departments. But despite Google employees’ anger and unease regarding their company’s partnership with ICE, workers are wary of voicing criticism openly.

“Many are hesitant to sign,” Alex tells me. “The expectation of retaliation is very widespread.” Recent rounds of layoffs, and the threat of retaliation, have created a “sense of job insecurity” among many. “The fear of speaking out is very strong,” he says. “Most folks are ...