Alphabet, the company that owns Google, and Meta, owner of Facebook, and Amazon announced that they will not participate in the next edition of the WebSummit, in Lisbon, after organizer Paddy Cosgrave defined Israel's response to the Hamas attack, on October 7, as “war crimes”.
The information is reported by Bloomberg, reporting the withdrawals from the conference, scheduled for November.
Thus, these technological 'giants' join the list of companies in the sector that have already announced the abandonment of the event following these statements, after Siemens and Intel, for example, made similar decisions.
On October 7, Hamas launched an attack on Israeli territory that escalated violence in the region, leading to the deaths of thousands of civilians, both in the Gaza Strip and in Israeli territory.
After the statements about Israel, which earned him criticism from various sectors, Cosgrave ended up issuing a apology public, writing: “To everyone who was hurt by my words, I apologize most sincerely. What is needed at this point is compassion and I did not convey that.”
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Paddy Cosgrave leaves leadership of Web Summit after controversy
According to what was revealed, Paddy Cosgrave, resigned “with immediate effect”, after making controversial statements about Israel that led several technology companies to abandon the event.
According to the Sunday Independent, Cosgrave regretted that his “personal comments” about the escalation of violence in Israel had become “a distraction from the event, the team, the sponsors, the startups and the people who participate”.
The 2023 edition of the Web Summit is scheduled for November 13, in Lisbon, expecting the presence of around 70 thousand people. Despite Cosgrave's departure, the event should go ahead as planned, said a spokesperson for the Web Summit, quoted by the Sunday Independent. A new CEO will also be announced as soon as possible.
“I'm sorry,” said the resigning CEO, in a speech to the organization's employees, on Friday. Cosgrave lamented that they “received the most hateful and hurtful messages that anyone can receive”.
“Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021 almost bankrupted Web Summit. We survived last year, dealing with more than 200 speaker cancellations, some driven by the presence of journalists who many considered pro-Russia and hostile to Ukraine. To be fair, it's nothing compared to what just happened and what's to come. You won't like to hear this, but I think it should be said that things are going to get a lot worse over the next 10 days before they start to get better. But they will improve”, he continued.
The jobs of Web Summit staff will not be at risk, the organization's executives assured, at a time when it has suffered boycotts due to its CEO's statements about Israel.
