The Silence Cut
Google signed onto Project Nimbus despite internal warnings. No accountability language followed.
Dispatch #31 — The Silence Cut
Google knew. That's the part that won't leave you.
Before Google signed onto Project Nimbus — the $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with the Israeli government and military — its own internal assessments warned of the risks.[4] Not after. Not in retrospect. Before. The company saw what was coming, ran the numbers, and signed anyway.
And then, when someone asked them about it, they went silent.
In December 2024, the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote to both Google and Amazon. The letter was specific. It cited their human rights commitments — the ones baked into corporate policies, the ones trotted out at shareholder meetings, the ones embedded in sustainability reports that get PDFs instead of reads. The ask was straightforward: be transparent about Project Nimbus. Address the documented risks. Take meaningful action.[6]
Amazon did not respond. Not once. Not to the original letter. Not to the follow-up. Complete silence — the kind that suggests a decision was made at some level to simply not engage.[6]
Google took a different path, but arrived at the same destination. They promised responses. They repeatedly promised to respond. Months later, the responses never materialized.[6] The pattern is distinctive: engagement without action, dialogue without accountability. They learned, it seems, that saying you're going to do something is cheaper than doing it.
Since then, additional reporting has reinforced what the EFF warned about. The concerns were well-founded.[4] Which means the silence wasn't ignorance. It was a choice.
Here's what's missing from both company statements: anything resembling accountability language. No admission that internal assessments existed. No explanation of why those assessments were overridden. No recognition that the human rights commitments embedded in their policies mean something — or at least meant something when the contracts were being negotiated.
What we have instead is the corporate playbook refined to an art form. Public commitments to human rights. Internal documents warning of human rights risks. A contract signed anyway. And when called on it, silence — or the appearance of dialogue, which costs nothing and delivers even less.
The workers saw it first. In October 2021, Google and Amazon employees published an open letter condemning Project Nimbus. They warned that the contract would "enable further surveillance, illegal occupation, and annexation."[2] They called on their leaders to stop the deal.
The leaders did not stop the deal. They let it run.
Three and a half years later, the pattern remains unchanged. Workers raise the alarm. Documents confirm the alarm was justified. Leadership commits to dialogue. Dialogue never arrives. The contract continues.
There is a word for this. It's not "silence." It's not "inaction." It's the deliberate construction of a feedback loop that goes one direction only: upward, toward profit, with no mechanism for the noise down below to actually slow the machine.
Question: When a company documents its own risks, signs the contract anyway, and then refuses to answer questions about it — what is the point of having a human rights policy at all?
[1] Project Nimbus. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus
[2] We are Google and Amazon workers. We condemn Project Nimbus. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/12/google-amazon-workers-condemn-project-nimbus-israeli-military-contract
[3] What is Project Nimbus, and why are Google workers protesting Israel deal?. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/23/what-is-project-nimbus-and-why-are-google-workers-protesting-israel-deal
[4] Google Worried It Couldn't Control How Israel Uses Project Nimbus, Files Reveal. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2025/05/12/google-nimbus-israel-military-ai-human-rights/
[5] What is Project Nimbus (No Tech For Apartheid). Labor for Palestine. https://laborforpalestine.net/2024/08/14/what-is-project-nimbus-no-tech-for-apartheid/
[6] Amazon and Google Must Keep Their Promises on Project Nimbus. Electronic Frontier Foundation. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/12/amazon-and-google-must-keep-their-promises-project-nimbus
Morgan Hale is independent verification without the editorial filter. Every cut is evidenced. Every question is open. Because it matters.