Google IO Rocked By Surprise Protests: What Exactly Happened?

By Prarthito
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Google's annual I/O event will be known for a lot of things. From Android Auto, to a revamped Chromebook, followed by Android One, this year's event is already gearing up to be a big one. However, one of the few things the event won't be remembered for is the shock protest that went down at the event this year.

 

Apparently, protesters twice interrupted Google's keynote presentation at its annual developers conference, held on Wednesday morning at the Moscone Center West.

 
Google IO Rocked By Surprise Protests: What Exactly Happened?

(Image Courtesy: CNET)

The first of the protests this morning was aimed at Google and one of its staff attorneys, Jack Halprin. The yet-to-be identified woman said she was one of the people whom Halprin had forced out from a seven-apartment building that he owns in San Francisco's diverse Mission District.

She shouted and claimed, "You need to develop a conscience, Google," during Engineering Director Dave Burke's presentation related to performance improvements under the new Android Runtime. She also complained how Halprin had evicted mothers who were breastfeeding their babies.

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Burke first attempted to ignore the woman, but he eventually stopped talking until event security escorted the woman from the room. Later, returning to his presentation, he stated that Android L, running the new Android Runtime, will have improved battery life that can last "even during protests."

Later, as scripted via CNET, a second protestor appeared "about an hour later, shortly after a video presentation about Google's efforts to get school-age children into coding and building apps that matter to them." The man, appearing to be in his late 20s, warned the crowd that Google was "building totalitarian machines that kill people."

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A Google spokesperson later told CNET that both protesters were calm as they were escorted from the building and were not arrested.

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