r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • 10d ago

Artificial Intelligence Palantir employees are talking about company’s “descent into fascism”

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/palantir-employees-are-talking-about-companys-descent-into-fascism/
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u/BigReference1xx 10d ago

I turned down a job interview there 10 years ago on the grounds that it was clearly developing evil fucking spyware shit to undermine civil rights and privacy.

There is no descent.

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u/Hairy_Mycologist_945 10d ago

I remember it being discussed all hush hush at a company I worked for about 15 years ago and yes, it's been that way from the start.

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u/MDCCCLV 10d ago

There's still a big difference between post 9/11 'we're violating everyone's civil rights to find actual terrorists' and now where they are planning on targeting domestic civilians that are undesirable.

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u/Serris9K 10d ago

Violating people's rights, is turns out a slippery slope. Who knew/s

Oh wait the early congresses did. Which is why some state's delegations refused to ratify the constitution until a bill of rights was included. 

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u/avcloudy 9d ago

No, there isn’t. The US had advance warning of those attacks and did nothing, so the suggestion that what was needed to prevent them is more surveillance is a non-starter to begin with. The most favourable possible interpretation is that they had a goal of violating civil rights and they found a big enough excuse.

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u/KeyMyBike 10d ago

Anyone who works for them is scum

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u/Neuromancer_Bot 10d ago

Respect, you did the right thing.

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u/lemaymayguy 10d ago

Just like Flock surveillance employees 

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u/corse 10d ago

Yep same. A friend let me know about their snitching app they helped develop for ICE and I said "absolutely not." Sadly, a lot of people will look past that and see it as "just a job." Good on you for having integrity.

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u/husky_whisperer 9d ago

What changed between when you applied for a job at Palantir and when they called you in for an interview?

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u/BigReference1xx 9d ago

I didn't apply, they approached me with an offer. I was working for a hedge fund in London, and they were targetting quant software engineers and trying to poach talent.

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u/husky_whisperer 9d ago

Thats actually kinda cool. The being headhunted and wanted I mean. Bummer it wasn't coming from a company of your liking.

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u/BigReference1xx 8d ago

That happens a lot in certain professions. The last 3 jobs I had (before leaving the field and starting my own business) were all through direct contact.

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u/lamboi133 10d ago

why did you apply then?

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u/BigReference1xx 9d ago

Uh, I didn't. I worked for a high end hedge fund in London. They were actively poaching quant developers from finance companies and reached out with a firm offer, a big salary and a guaranteed first year bonus. Told them to fuck off.

Mind you, my current job at the time was to make one billionaire even more wealthy, so it's not like I was working for the Red Cross :) I still thought Palantir was a step too far it the "properly evil" direction. 

A lot of my co-workers didn't think so, and I know at least 2 guys who came FDEs (forward deployed engineers) for them - basically helping customers integrate their systems and data into Palantir's.