As Google faces backlash over discrimination by its artificial intelligence product, internal company emails obtained by The Daily Wire reveal the company has grappled with several incidents of anti-Semitism in in recent months, including the words “kill all jews” found written on a bathroom wall inside its offices and a Jewish employee being assaulted by anti-Israel protesters on one of their campuses.
The emails show internal uproar last by a group of Jewish employees inside the company that refers to itself as the “Jewglers” after the words “Free Palestine Kill All Jews” was seen scribbled on a flier inside Google’s Chelsea office in New York City last November. And just earlier this month on February 13 leadership of the Jewish employee group informed fellow members that a Jewish employee was assaulted when attempting to take a photo of a person handing out flyers for a pro-Palestinian protest inside Google’s London office.
“The Jewgler attempted to photograph the person handing out the flyers in order to report them to security,” the email reads. “At that point, the Jewgler was physically assaulted. He was mildly injured.”
The news of concerns about anti-Semitism within the ranks of Google come as the tech giant faces backlash over discriminatory behavior by its just-launched artificial intelligence product, Gemini. Critics say the product’s controversial behavior, chiefly a diversity-obsessed image generator that has been labeled “anti-white,” is the result of political biases of the Google employees that made it. The Daily Wire revealed that one of the leaders of the AI initiative has openly stated that she treats minority employees different than white employees.
Grafitti on a flyer in a Google’s New York City office stating “Free Palestine, kill all Jews.”
A spokeswoman for Google confirmed the incidents to The Daily Wire and said that internal investigations were launched. Though the company declined to comment specifically on either, it said broadly that action was taken against people who “violated our workplace policies.”
“We take all concerns raised very seriously and investigate them thoroughly and consistently,” the spokeswoman said. “We’ve absolutely taken action over the last few months against people who’ve violated our workplace policies.”
Google also provided the email that was sent to all employees regarding the New York City incident, in which the company says the New York Police Department was contacted about the “obviously vile” message and an internal investigation was launched. “I can’t promise we’ll find the person, but it will not be for lack of effort,” the company said, adding that “it’s not clear whether this was done by a Google employee, a member of our extended workforce, a guest or a visitor.”
Internal email from Google’s ‘Jewgler’ group revealing that a Jewish employee was assaulted by a pro-Palestinian protester.
Regarding the assault on planned protests, the Jewish Google employee group warned employees not to put themselves in harm when confronting anti-Semitism within the company. “If you begin to feel unsafe, video or photo documentation is helpful but keep your personal safety in mind,” it states, encouraging employees to not engage with protesters.
The email claims the protests took place at several Google offices and were organized by a non-Google group, No Tech for Apartheid. Other protest locations included San Francisco, New York City, and Seattle. The attacker disappeared and a report was filed, according to the email.
Other reported incidents by the “Jewglers” indicate that anti-Israel bias is common throughout Google’s worldwide offices. Emails reveal that there was another incident where the Israeli flag was partially erased from a display of world flags for an internal “Android Health & Wear International Day.” The Palestinian flag had hearts added next to it.
Photo of a Israeli flag that was partially erased from a display of world flags for an internal “Android Health & Wear International Day.”
Google paused its AI chatbot image generator, Gemini 1.5, after it was accused of refusing to generate images of white people, including when prompted to show the Pope. But Gemini was also accused of anti-Israel bias after it said Israelis are more violent than Palestinians and that there is no “definite proof” that Hamas raped Israeli civilians on October 7.
The company acknowledged its shortcomings in a statement to The Daily Wire, saying these sort of missteps are common in “large language models” like Gemini.
“We’ve quickly worked to address this issue and for any prompts that are related to the Israel-Hamas conflict, we’ll aim to point people to Google Search for the most up-to-date information,” the Google spokeswoman said. “Large language models aren’t always accurate when answering questions about breaking news or conflicts. When we find instances where Gemini is providing offensive or low quality responses, we will work quickly to address the issue.”
The company also said it has many employees who are personally affected by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas and that employees are encouraged to report any concerns.
Just 10 days after Hamas’s murder of Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company donated $8 million in grants to nonprofits that were providing relief to civilians in both Israel and Gaza.
“What our 2,000+ colleagues in Israel are going through is heartbreaking as their families and friends continue to experience loss and horror, with hostages from Israel and around the world in Gaza,” Pichai wrote. “Googlers in Israel are still sheltering in safe rooms.”
