Peter Theil is an extremely wealthy business man, a lead founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, and has even donated funds to the current vice president of the United States, J.D. Vance, contributing $15 million to Vance during his Ohio Senate campaign run in 2022 while also helping Vance win the GOP primary.
Some speculate that Theil’s close ties to Vance, going back to hiring Vance for his investment firm in 2017, made Vance’s term as vice president possible. In 2020, he and Elon Musk even funded Donald Trump’s second run to become president, as Thiel has been a constant source of financial support for Trump for years, according to multiple reports.
On Friday, there was a protest in West Hollywood right outside of Theil Capital on Sunset Boulevard which —coincides with the current onslaught of anti-ICE protests throughout Los Angeles — this protest called out a different side of the coin, rumors of Palantir’s software technology and artificial intelligence being a key player in the current ICE raids of Los Angeles. Protestors suggest Palantir’s technology is used for tracking Americans by way of racial profiling through surveillance data and artificial intelligence.
The Palantir protest took place last Friday at the tail end of the first week of Los Angeles’ notable protests that began on June 6 in response to the ICE raids. 13 people were arrested.
Miracle McKinney, a protestor, said to Our Weekly that protestors are also advocating not just against ICE’s presence in Los Angeles, but also in the United States in general as government contracts given to major corporations are harmful and technology is used to hunt people down.
“People don’t realize the severe implications that happens when our privacy has been breached. Right now, Palantir and Peter Theil’s algorithm, software, network, and contracts are allowing not just American citizens but immigrants to be traced, tracked and hunted down.” She added, “We are seeing family members and hardworking people getting snatched from their communities. If they were truly going after criminals then we would see the proof of that and what we are seeing right now is proof that this is not working. What they are doing is monetizing and commodifying the kidnapping of people and that’s unacceptable.”
McKinney also said that the federal government should focus on the interests of the people it serves and private entities are to remain separate.
Founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Stephen Cohen and other investors, Palantir has been around for 22 years. There have been multiple rumors that while the company promises that the artificial intelligence they utilize won’t cause harm to Americans privacy, protestors feel otherwise. Palantir’s presence on the stock market has also grown significantly from $50 billion to $300 billion since last year, according to an NPR investigative report.
Palantir has attempted to debunk the rumors by posting several blog breakdowns tilted ‘Palantir explained’ to combat the public’s concern about their services and ties to government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Defense and even foreign military operations in Israel and the United Kingdom.
Posted on Nov. 11, 2020, the first blog stated, that “Palantir has often been described as a secretive company. There is some truth to this,” while going on to explain that they have served institutions with “exceptional confidentiality explanations in fields like defense and intelligence.” They also broke down their business model through various sections with subheads the first being: Palantir is not a “data broker” or “data aggressor”, Palantir is a software company, and Our software platforms allow organizations to better manage the data that they already lawfully control.
A second protestor, Alicia Baltazar, spoke to Our Weekly and expressed concerns for children of color who are also vulnerable to AI software and technology used to track them in efforts to increase mass deportation. She said that children are the most vulnerable and not aware of how much surveillance online plays a part in their day-to-day lives such as them being online, playing video games, and also how the federal government is taking away vital programs from children of color through federal budget cuts.
“What really brings me out here is the children of my community, the ones that don’t have a voice. I feel so strongly that someone has to be here to speak on their behalf, in regard to the uptick of mass deportation.”
She continued, “This has never been about crime, this was always about racism, hate, and taking the most vulnerable out of our communities. If it was about crime, we would see the Aryan brotherhood leave first, we would see them go after every other gang instead of just Mexican gangs and children.”
Baltazar went on to say that Palantir’s software is a threat and causes harm to Americans through racial profiling, misidentifying and misgendering Black and Latino people and is not here to protect Americans from crime and international threats.
Beverly Roberts, a senior protester, held up a sign that said ‘STOP THE BILLIONAIRE TAKEOVER.’
She also shared her reasoning for protesting against Palantir and Peter Theil due to his ties to the Trump administration and the company potentially being a key player in the ICE raids of Los Angeles. “That is what they are all about. We have to get out and fight and let them know that we aren’t going to stand for this by showing up and saying what we have to say.
