Google has come under fire in the past year for everything from privacy policies to censorship. But in December, some Bay Area residents were protesting the tech giant for a very different reason. The group that marched in front of the company's San Francisco office was angry over the company's donation to organizations fighting human trafficking.
The flyers declared, "Google: Please fund non-judgmental services for sex workers, NOT the morality crusaders that dehumanize us!"
Google had donated a whopping $11.5 million to organizations that "fight slavery" last December, including the anti-sex trafficking groups International Justice Mission, Polaris Project, and Not For Sale.
But the activists said that these are religious organizations that ignored the rights of consensual sex workers.
According to a press release from Sex Worker Activists, Allies, and You (SWAAY), "As frontline sex-worker support services struggle for funding to serve their communities, it is offensive to watch Google shower money upon a wealthy faith-based group like the International Justice Mission, which took in nearly $22 million in 2009 alone."