Newsletter
The controversy surrounding Google’s firing of an employee over what has been labeled an “anti-diversity” manifesto has reached new heights, with one group of protesters planning to march against the company starting August 19th. In fact, at least 5 cities will see protests, including Mountain View, New York City New, Austin, Boston, and Washington D.C. That’s according to a website put up by the protesters – who have taken to labeling Google’s decision as anti-free speech. Beyond the 5 main protests, which all take place at Google-associated locations and are scheduled from 1 to 3 pm local time at each locale, protesters are also using the site to call for participants across the country to protest anywhere else “Google has an office.”
The marches have reportedly been organized by activist Jack Posobiec and people the associated website calls “a coalition of free speech activists around the US,” in an effort to raise awareness about the problems the group’s members claim are rampant in the company. Since Monday’s firing of James Damore, the group has taken to calling out Google on the site as a monopoly, with claims that the company abuses its power to silence dissent and manipulate election results. Furthermore, the group accuses the search giant of censoring uploads that question the dominant narrative on YouTube.
YouTube censorship is not a new topic. With that said, the hot-button issue has already been addressed by Google in the past, with several of the reported problems arising as the result of a software bug that has since been fixed. There also appears to be, as of this writing, very little evidence, if any, supporting claims of election interference or a desire from the company to silence dissenting narratives. With regard to this week’s controversy, which could have played a big part in getting the marches organized, Google says it came down to a matter of an employee violating the code of conduct for employees. The company is, of course, able to enforce its code of conduct within reason without fear of violating free speech since employees represent the company in the public sphere and a business entity has the right to exert control over how it is represented. Citizens of the U.S. also have every right to protest as is allowed by the American Constitution. So anybody interested in taking part in the protests, or the equally likely counter-protests, can head over to the source link below for more information.