Google and Meta (Facebook, Instagram) confirmed on Friday that they would not attend November’s Web Summit in Lisbon, one of the most important global tech events, due to the co-founders’ positions on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Several companies and prominent guests decided to boycott the conference after Paddy Cosgrave, the organizer, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he was “shocked by the rhetoric and actions of many Western leaders and governments” in support of Israel.
“War crimes are war crimes, even when committed by allies, and should be denounced for what they are,” wrote this Irish entrepreneur, who co-founded this meeting in 2009, in Dublin on October 13th.
He has since apologized, but this does not seem to have calmed his relationships with many partners.
Social media giant Meta told AFP it would not be attending the Web Summit, without elaborating on the reasons.
“We will ultimately not be present at the Web Summit,” Google, for its part, told the Irish newspaper Irish Independent, which recalls that the Internet giant is one of the commercial partners of the annual event.
After the first messages from Paddy Cosgrave, there was a wave of boycotts aimed at the next Web Summit, which is scheduled to welcome around 2,300 start-ups and more than 70,000 participants from November 13th to 16th, among big names in the tech industry .
“I refuse to take part in the Web Summit and am canceling my participation,” announced, for example, Garry Tan, head of the Californian incubator Y Combinator, one of its headliners, on X.
He was notably imitated in a publication on LinkedIn.
Israel’s ambassador to Portugal, Dor Shapira, stated on the same social network that “dozens of companies have already canceled their visits” and warned that Israel would not take part in the show.
On Tuesday, Paddy Cosgrave finally issued a “statement of apology”: “I understand that my words, the timing of them and the manner in which they were delivered have deeply hurt many people,” he said.
“What we need now is compassion, and I haven’t done that,” he admitted, reiterating his condemnation of the “monstrous” Hamas attack.
A little earlier on Tuesday, he assured on X that he had received numerous messages of support from Israel and other parts of the world.
On October 7, Israel fell victim to an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. Since that attack, more than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel. Most were civilians who died on the day of the attack, the deadliest since the founding of the State of Israel.
The Israeli retaliatory strikes killed more than 4,100 people, mostly Palestinian civilians, including hundreds of children, according to local authorities.
The besieged and bombed Gazans are desperately awaiting the arrival of the first international aid convoys, which the United Nations says is a matter of “life and death” for them