Accused of silencing the voice of its employees, Google is facing backlash from its own Googlers. (Image via BBC)

Google employees protest for the future of the technology

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Business & Industry
Internet & IT
Nov 23, 2019
2232
Out of solidarity, on Friday, about 200 employees of Google - known as Googlers - were crowding its headquarters in San Francisco. Protesting the world’s multinational company, they only had one demand in mind: bring back the two employees they shut down without reason.

It was a part of the bigger scheme, which they claim as a struggle for the future of technology and culture.

The protest revolved around an incident where two Google employees, Rebecca Rivers and Laurence Berland, were put under administrative leave a few weeks ago. However, the main problem was that Rivers and Berland did not know why Google did such action to them. The two then deducted that Google was trying to shut them up.

Rebecca Rivers, a software engineer at Google, made a petition demanding Google to stop working with the government agencies in the United States (U.S). Moreover, as one of the “Gaylers”, Rivers also wanted the gay pride festival to cut ties with Google following the controversies on YouTube when Steven Crowder called Vox journalist, Carlos Maza, as a “Mexican lipsy queer” despite his Mexican descent and gay orientation.

Rivers called out YouTube for failing to stand against homophobic, racist speech.

Berland, speaking in front of the protesting Googlers, stated that the movement should not be about him nor Rivers. One Googler said that the issue could befall anyone. In the end, Zack Siegel closed the protests by once again echoing the demand from the protest.

It is about the open culture that Google has been proud of all along. Freedom of speech is what Google treasures for years, its CEO, Sundar Pichai, encouraged Googlers to speak up their mind on the TGIF meeting.

However, as the years went by, the stance gradually changed. No more TGIFs and Google hired IRI Consultants, a management firm known for dismissing worker unions.

In June 2019, Adam Campbell, a former software engineer at Google, resigned from his position due to the homophobic regulations by Google. He showed up in Friday’s protest.

In October 2018, Googlers had had enough when Google offered a US$90 million exit package to Andy Rubin, the pioneer of Android OS. The amount was considered lofty, judging from the sexual controversies following Rubin.

The incident triggered more than 20,000 Googlers from all around the world. From Tokyo to Berlin, Googlers walked out in protests against how Google handles sexual offenders and other issues.

Source: https://bit.ly/2D9WmO6

Business , Regulation , Technology , Internet , IT , U.S , Google , Scandal , Homophobic , Racism , Hate-speech , YouTube , Android