Google reportedly banned employee political discussions before election night, which ended in Donald Trump’s victory.
The Big Tech giant moderated and removed election-related posts on an internal message board called Memegen, CNBC reported,
Google previously tightened limits on political discussion in September — and created a rule that would ban employees who violate the policy three times.
In a memo Monday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai asked employees to follow the company’s “individual political activity policy” and said its goal is to be a “trusted source of information for people of every background and belief.”
Pichai wrote, “No matter who voters hand the responsibility to, let’s remember the role we play in the workplace, through the products we make, and as a business: a beacon of information for people of every background and faith.” “Becoming a reliable source.” “We will and must maintain it.”
Some Google employees took umbrage at the policy and poked fun at Google’s internal community management team, or ICMT, which is responsible for moderating Memegen, CNBC reported.
One staffer joked: “Make Election Day a holiday to give ICMT a break.”
Another reportedly complained that Google had removed a post that they felt did not violate the ban.
Elsewhere, Google caused a brief uproar on Election Day when some users noticed that its search engine was displaying an interactive map of voting locations for a specific search related to Kamala Harris, but not Trump.
do a quick google Confirmed the error and implemented the solution.,
Google raises limits on political discussion Amid signs of discord within its workforce.
The company briefly shut down Memegen last March after employees expressed displeasure over Google’s $1.2 billion “Project Nimbus” contract – in which Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services will provide cloud-computing and military services for the Israeli government and military. Provides artificial intelligence services.
In April, the tech giant Dozens of employees were fired Who were involved in anti-Israel sit-ins at offices in New York and California.
In a heated memo to employees the same month, Pichai said that Google “is a business, and not the place to act in a way that harasses coworkers or makes them feel unsafe,” calling the company “a personal platform for Attempts to use it in, or fighting over, disruptive issues or debating politics.
Last month, the Alphabet workers union filed a federal labor complaint accusing Google of imposing Illegal “gag order” prevents employees from discussing pending antitrust cases Against the company.
A federal judge ruled in August that Google has an illegal monopoly on online search. Closing arguments are scheduled this month in a separate Justice Department case targeting Google’s digital advertising business.
