A local San Francisco anti-Google group took their protest to a Google employee's house, Tuesday, distributing details of his work through fliers and also blocked a bus exclusively meant for Google employees.
The local anti-Google protest group in San Francisco, California, is not just targeting the new buses allotted to Google employees, but is also stalking and blocking employees at their homes. On Tuesday morning, the anonymous group, which calls itself "counterforce," blocked a top Google employee Anthony Levandowski's home. He leads Google's self-driving car project.
Levandowski, who worked on Google's controversial street-view project before taking over the self-driving car project, was alerted of the protest with a banner held in front of his house that read "Google's future stops here," according to an anonymous submission on local news site Indybay, which was later reported by ARS Technia.
The so-called counterforce members also distributed fliers detailing his work with the defense industry and noting his latest plans to develop a luxurious 77-unit apartment building in Berkeley.
"We will not be held hostage by Google's threat to release massive amounts of carbon should the bus service be stopped. Our problem is with Google, its pervasive surveillance capabilities utilized by the NSA, the technologies it is developing, and the gentrification its employees are causing in every city they inhabit. But our problem does not stop with Google" the group warned. "All of you other tech companies, all of you other developers and everyone else building the new surveillance state--We're coming for you next."
The flier distributed around Levandowski's home had details of how he left the house with his baby in his arm, a tablet in the other free hand and Google Glasses over his eyes. "As he descended the stairs with the baby, his eyes were on the tablet through the prism of his Google Glasses, not on the life against his chest. He appeared in this moment like the robot he admits that he is," the flier read.
Google has not responded to the recent situation.
The counterforce group moved on to another location after blocking and protesting outside Levandowski's home for about 45 minutes. This time they targeted a Google bus at Ashby BART, where they blocked it for about 30 minutes before BART Police officers arrived and dispersed the group.
