People driving were honking and throwing shakas, while community members waved signs directed to Palantir Technologies, and ICE, on an overcast Monday during the lunch rush at the corner of Bishop and Queen streets in Downtown Honolulu.
Punahou student Zane Dalgamouni served as the main organizer of the protest with Indivisible Hawai’i, which is a progressive grassroots activist organization that is part of the nationwide Indivisible movement. Palantir is actively recruiting in Honolulu for high-level, military-facing roles, according to online job postings, Dalgamouni said in an Op-Ed for Aloha State Daily.
Punahou School student Zane Dalgamouni, right, served as the main organizer of the protest with Indivisible Hawai’i. He is pictured talking with a Punahou alum on Monday. Photo by Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros (Aloha State Daily Staff) 
Sergio Alcubilla, community engagement director for American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Hawaiʻi, passes out signs. Photo by Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros (Aloha State Daily Staff) 
ACLU of Hawaiʻi table pictured along with some Aloha State Daily merchandise. Photo by Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros (Aloha State Daily Staff)
Meanwhile, Sergio Alcubilla, community engagement director for American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Hawaiʻi, set up shop with a table, signs and more information about today’s cause and priorities for the organization.
Signs varied in messaging, including, “Palantir Powers the Surveillance State,” “Palantir Dark Lord’s Software,” “Palantir Destroys Data Privacy,” and “Palantir Automates Cruelty.”
According to its website, Miami-headquartered Palantir Technologies is a software company that makes “products for human-driven analysis of real-world data,” in the form of government defense, police enforcement and higher education contracts; analytics and AI tools, among other services.
Palantir currently operates in Washington D.C., New York, Washington and California, as well as Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Last summer, the U.S. Army announced it had awarded Palantir a 10-year, $10 billion contract to consolidate data tools.
The software company has since looked to renovate offices at the Pacific Guardian Center in Downtown Honolulu, according to an article from Pacific Business News in September 2025. Multiple members of the protest Monday told ASD that Palantir was "unlisted" in the commercial office's tenant director.
Protests to “Purge Palantir” have been ongoing across the country, including at Stanford University.
Catherine Titzer, who recently graduated from there and is now a community field fellow for ACLU of Hawaiʻi, told ASD at the protest Monday that her job entails “community outreach, events, showing up for and listening to the community, and engaging with people.”
“Basically, just supporting the mission of ACLU of Hawaiʻi, which is expanding and protecting civil liberties and civil rights for all.”
In California, she was the co-president of Stanford ACLU, which also involved community outreach.
“Recently, we were organizing a lot around Stanford’s contract with Flock, which is very connected to the same fight as Palantir,” Titzer said. “And just as of last week, Stanford ended its contract with Flock, which is really exciting. So, we’re doing a lot of the same things to bring awareness to these issues and trying to protect people’s data privacy. … No one likes the idea of being surveilled 24/7.”
She added that even though Palantir has been in Honolulu for about a year, there “has been a large lack of transparency about who they are [and] what they are doing here. And so part of what we’re protesting, too, is that lack of transparency because we believe that people should be able to know what’s going on here."
Titzer advises the public to educate themselves first, and then educate friends and family next.
When asked about the turnout of this protest, she noted that all ages were represented, “which is really exciting to see everyone come together over this issue.”
“I think that the energy is really good,” she continued. “It’s a very peaceful protest and people have, overall, been receptive to learning more.”
For Theresia Ota — a proud ACLU of Hawaiʻi volunteer for about a month now — having a lasting effect on the community, particularly with Palantir, is the goal.
“I enjoy doing something about the issues I care about and appreciate aligning with ACLU,” she said, adding that domestic violence “is a big issue for me and very near and dear to my heart.”
“On the Mainland, I read how Flock cameras were being used inappropriately by law enforcement. There are many women on the Mainland who have relationships with exes in law enforcement, who are misusing their video access to stalk [them]; there’s evidence of that. So, that is one facet of why this is not OK. And then you add on the whole ICE aspect of it, which is even more upsetting.”
Ota adds that the reelection of President Donald Trump was a “sad state of affairs,” and that she wishes more local folks would have voted in the primary.
“I like to think I’m paying attention, but I only just found out about Palantir weeks ago,” she continued. “I hope they look at things (differently).”
Follow ACLU of Hawaiʻi and Indivisible Hawaiʻi on social media for more upcoming events.
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Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.
