Those workers who sign on at obvious defense contractors, such as Lockheed Martin or Raytheon, have no compunction about working on products that are designed for military use. However, when employees go to work for Google, Amazon or other tech industry giants, building products of military value isn’t on their radar screens. That is now changing as the industry’s cone of silence is crumbling in the face of employee petitions. Whether it’s AI development or facial recognition software, employees of companies like Google, Amazon, Salesforce and IBM are calling on their CEO’s to cancel contracts with ICE, Customs, the military and other government agencies. In a highly-charged and growingly partisan environment, such action doesn’t come as a surprise, and in the tech industry in particular, has been growing for a while. One wonders when the activity may spill over the levee into other business sectors.
