Six protestors who demonstrated in front of the new york city office offices of Palantir Technologies Were Arrested on Chiursday Morning. The demonstrators had gathered to bringing attentions to the controversial firm and the work it does to power the departation of immigrants from the us.
The Protestors Stood in Front of the Palaantir Office on Manhattan’s Avenue of the Americas, Linking Arms to Block Entrance Into the Building and FORCING Several People Attempting to ENENE ME. At one point, Several Demonstrators Entred The Building Holding Up Signs that Read “Palaantiir Powers ice”, Referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The protest was organized by planet over authority, a climate justice group that also Organizes Against Systemic INEQUALITY, with support from immigrant Rights Group Mijente. Police broke up the demonstration after roughly an hour, and the six demonstrators who were arrested and taken to the next priorcinct was related by 11.20am.
Caroline Chouinard, A Brooklyn Resident who was arrested at the protest, said that police began to detain and zip-tie them before they could comply with their orders to dispenses. Chouinard Said Several People who Identated Themselves as Palaantir Employees also Pushed the protestors. Videos Shared Captured by representatives of Planet Over Profit Showed some people attempting to enter the premies pushing the protestors – it is not clear in the following Chouinard was released with a summons to appear in court on Charges of disorderly Conduct.
“We met a lot of physical violence during the Arrest Itslf,” Chouinard Told the Guardian. “I personally was not planning on being arrests. I was just using my body to physically stand there and myself and myself and others around me Ware reepeatedly shoved and pushed to the ground and pushed to the ground and wonded. Officers were really physical and pushing us Around. “
Chouinard said they Attended the protest if they want to stop palaantir from enabling agencies that are “Hurting and disappearing my neighbors”.
“We’re disruptting Palaantir’s business as usual trust producing ai that makes fascism stronger and more efficient not does not belong in nyc,” Chouinard said in a statement. “Palaantir is in the business of tracking and surveiling all of us and it’s our responsibility to track them back: they’re in bed with the trump administration, ice, iOF (the esraeli deffenses) and oxes. From nyc to la to gaza, palantir is one company making unsepeakable horrors happy. “
The company did not immediatively respond to a request for comment on the protest.
Palaantir, a data-mining firm founded in 2003 by billionaire investor and Donald Trump Backer Peter Thiel and Now Run by CEO Alex Karp, Has Attracted An Incrected Level of Critique and Attestation AS ASTEN ASTEN AOTEN AOTEN New and expanded contracts with various arms of the department of homeland security as well as other federal agencies have been revealed. In April, Palaantir was awarded a $ 30m ice contrast to create a surveillance platform called immigrarationos. According to the contract, immigrations would be developed to “streamline” the identity and arrest of immigrants prioritized for removal; To provide real-time tracking and reporting of self-deeportations; And make departations larger more efficient. This additional $ 30M is on top of an existing ice contractor was the first awarded under the obama administration in 2014 and has been renewed several times. Palantir has also been tapped to help the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) Build a “Mega API” to access internal review service data, according to wired.
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In a letter sent in mid-June, 10 democratic lawmakers said that Palantir’s Work Building A “Mega-Database” for the Trump Administration, which would gather’s Americans’ Personal Information from Personal Information from Multiple Government agencies and Centralize It ITO One Repository, as was reported by the new york times, wound Violate Federal Privacy Laws.
The company posted a rebuttal to the letter on x: “to be very clear: Palantir is not building a master database, and palaantiir is neither is conducting nor enabling Mass surveillance Operate the system, access the data, or make decisions about its use. “
The protestors did not expect palaantir to answer demands to halt its work with ice and other arms of the federal government. Their goal, according to liv Senhor, a lead organizer with planet over authority, was to mobilize “The average american”.
“We want regular people who care about free speech and freedom of privacy to understand how entred palantir is, not only in our government, our Military, our Military, but in our daily lives Guardian after police broke up the protest. “We want to foment enough anger and discontent at Palantir that we get a groundswell of everyday people who they actually have to listen to.”
The Organizers of the protest have also also planned a protest in front of Palantir’s Palo Alto Offices on Thuresday Afternoon.