--- title: "Palantir’s Employees Are in Crisis" description: "The military and intelligence contractor Palantir has been embroiled in nonstop controversy during Trump's second term." date: "2026-04-24" modified: "2026-04-24" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/palantirs-employees-crisis" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" --- # Palantir’s Employees Are in Crisis ![Palantir's involvement in war, US deportations, and posting ominous corporate manifestos has current and former employees shaken.]() *Getty / Futurism* The military and intelligence contractor Palantir has been embroiled in nonstop controversy during Trump's second term. It's been [directly involved]() in the administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants, an effort that's been [implicated in numerous deaths](). The company has [even been linked]() to US airstrikes that [leveled a school in Iran](), killing over 120 schoolchildren. Last week, the Peter Thiel-cofounded company poured fuel on the fire with a [22-point summary]() of CEO Alex Karp's 2025 book "The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West," an ominous corporate manifesto that [critics called]() a "hideous ideology" and "example of technofascism." Now, Palantir's seemingly endless run of bad press has current and former employees shaken, [*Wired* reports](), with some starting to wonder whether "they're the bad guys." "I think there's a bit of an identity crisis and a bit of a challenge," one former employee told the magazine. "We were supposed to be the ones who were preventing a lot of these abuses. Now we're not preventing them. We seem to be enabling them." While Palantir prides itself "on a culture of fierce internal dialogue and even disagreement over the complex areas we work on," as a spokesperson told *Wired*, workers and alumni are [required to sign]() non-disparagement agreements and forbidden to speak to the press. Meanwhile, employees have vented in internal Slack threads, voicing their growing concerns over Palantir and ICE's relationship, especially after the shooting death of numerous protesters. Palantir started auto-deleting conversations in at least one Slack channel after seven days, per *Wired*, raising even more questions. Palantir maintains that its ICE contract allows the firm to make a "difference in mitigating risks while enabling targeted outcomes," according to an internal blog post. Following the deadly strike on the Iranian school, one employee asked in a Slack channel if "were we involved," and whether the company is "doing anything to stop a repeat," as quoted by *Wired*. And the company's most recent manifesto summarizing Karp's book drew yet another heated reaction internally. "I’m curious why this had to be posted," one frustrated employee wrote in a Slack thread viewed by *Wired*. "Especially on the company account. On the practical level every time stuff like that gets posted it gets harder for us to sell the software outside of the US (for sure in the current political climate), and I doubt we need this in the US?" "I’ve already had multiple friends reach out and ask what the hell did we post," another employee wrote. "It’s like we taped a 'kick me' sign on our own backs," another worker wrote. "I hope no one who decided to put this out is surprised that we are, in fact, getting kicked." **More on Palantir:** [*Palantir Issues Ominous Corporate Manifesto*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()