Google retaliated against the Google employees who organized the Google Walkout. While publicly, CEO Sundar Pichai praised Google employees for standing up to sexual harassment, internally, at least 350 people who helped organize that walkout said they faced retaliation for doing so. One of the most prominent leaders, Claire Stapleton, recently quit her job. She couldn’t deal with the retaliation she faced. Google had won. They silenced another nasty woman. Her crime? Believing that people serial sexual harassers at Google shouldn’t get $90 million dollars for coercing women into sex slavery. No, really.
Now that retaliation is keeping LGBTQ Googlers silent. While YouTube, owned by Google, continues to allow anti-LGBTQ harassment, hate speech, and slurs on the platform, its employees are fed up. Furthermore, LGBTQ employees worry for their jobs and safety. Not only does Google directly retaliate, but the company has also permitted and even enabled doxxing and targeted harassment of outspoken liberal employees.
That culture is why no one within YouTube has called for a walkout. A workplace where the employees are too terrified to speak their minds is not a workplace that fosters innovation, inclusion, safety, or privacy. So what do you think they’re doing with your data?
In case you need a refresher, here’s a short video on just some of the harassment Steven Chowder has thrown at Carlos Maza.
https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1134264395717103617
In This Article:
Google-Approved Doxxing
Most companies have an internal directory. There’s a place where you can find your coworkers’ personal email addresses, phone numbers, emergency contact information, maybe even their address, depending on what department you work in. Now, imagine instead of being the decent human being you are, you were an alt-righter. Put yourself in that mindset. You hate everyone and anything that isn’t you. You’re mad at your coworkers, especially the women. They were in favor of James Damore losing his job over his sexist, deluded, and hateful screed. They marched when news of Google’s golden parachutes for male sexual harassers went public. Now they’re mad about hate speech, spreading violence, and targeted harassment?
So what did the alt-right Google employees do do? They doxxed these women. They leaked their personal information to 8chan and Gab.ai, a well as other hate sites. The men and women who stood up against sexual harassment and misogyny (as well as just poor science) soon found they were facing waves of text message and email spam. Their own coworkers doxxed them, and now their personal safety as well as the safety of their families was at risk.
Google Steps… Back
“When these doxxings were brought up, Google said they were not responsible.”
– Anonymous source at Google
What did Google do? Did they review access logs and figure out who had viewed those people’s records? Did they trace who was going to 8chan or Gab from within their network? Nope! Instead Google told victims that Google’s not at fault, and they wouldn’t be doing anything. Despite how easy it would be to catch many of the people who doxxed these people and fire them, Google instead decided to take no action.
Many employees decided to get burner phones or put false information on their employee directory pages. This defeats the purpose of these pages, further harming Google. But it seems Google, when offered the choice between doing what’s right and doing what’s wrong, even when it hurts their business, they’ll choose what’s wrong if it means saving a little face.
Retaliation
From the Google employee walkout in 2018. Photo: Stephen Lam/Reuters
Claire Stapleton helped lead the infamous Google Walkout, demanding change from a company that rewarded and protected sexual abusers. Even with a lawyer helping prevent the largest form of retaliation she faced, demotion, she still received less work after pushing for change. Her coworkers treated her poorly. Eventually, her workplace became far more toxic than it was before the march. She helped bring change, like the end of forced arbitration at Google, but those changes wouldn’t benefit her. The women who work at Google now and in the future will thank her for her efforts. But women all over tech still suffer.
Claire wasn’t alone. In fact, hundreds of Google employees who joined the walkout against sexual harassment and assault found their jobs far more difficult afterwards. They received lower scores on performance reviews, they had a harder time getting tickets to work on, and some even faced demotions with no explanations. The hard truth of the matter is, despite claiming he was in favor of the walkout, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai oversaw this harassment and retaliation, and did nothing. They wanted to punish Google employees for bringing Google’s dirty laundry into the light of day and showing the world just how awful Google was for women. They rewarded sexual harassers while punishing women who came forward. This isn’t the first time they’ve retaliated against people who spoke up against wrongdoings at Google.
Hollow Responses from CEOs
Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Google and Susan Wojcicki is the CEO of YouTube. Both felt the need to release hollow apologies. They would still, despite complaints, take no action against those spreading hate speech on their platform, despite being against their rules. They would not ban a person for targeted harassment of a gay man for his sexuality and race, despite it breaking the rules. They’ll ban white supremacist content and even anti-vaccination content, but they won’t take action against homophobic or transphobic hate on their platforms. Instead, YouTube continues to demonetize LGBTQ content creators, leaving them working for free while bigots rake in ad money.
Susan Wojcicki’s “Apology”
"Are you really sorry for anything that happened to the LGBTQ community? Or are you just sorry they were offended?"
Watch @SusanWojcicki's response at #CodeCon: pic.twitter.com/5MqJxL8QVS
— Recode (@Recode) June 10, 2019
“YouTube has always been a home of so many LGBTQ creators, and that’s why it was so emotional. Even though it was a hard decision, it was harder that it came from us — because it was such an important home. And even though we made this decision, we have so many people from the lGBTQ community. We’ve always wanted to openly support this community. As a company we really want to support this community. It’s just from a policy standpoint we need to be consistent — if we took down that content, there would be so much other content that we need to take down.”
– Susan Wojcicki
Susan rambled a bit here, but she can’t be blamed for that. It’s difficult to say to someone’s face that you’re not going to do anything to make YouTube better, but create more rules you won’t enforce and do nothing to fix the demonetization of LGBTQ videos. Susan had to balance the delicate world of saying changes were coming, without being concrete enough to get backed into a corner later.
For example, YouTube’s policies say hate speech and harassment are not allowed. However, they wish to allow popular YouTubers to make that content, as it’s profitable. Now people expect them to enforce the rules they made. But, if you’re clever, and never promise to do anything right, you will never actually disappoint!
Right?
Sundar Pichai’s “Apology”
Photo: AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Sundar took a more cautious approach. He didn’t have the guts to improvise or answer questions in front of cameras and a live audience. Instead, he sent out a letter to Google employees. Still, despite the preparation, it, too, is hollow, promises nothing, and still promotes bigoted content over innocent LGBTQ related videos. For Google, hate speech that fuels violence is still profitable.
Hi everyone,
I want to thank the Gayglers Americas Steering Committee and Pride@YouTube for the good discussion yesterday.
It was important for me to hear directly from LGBTQ+ Googlers to better understand the full range of experiences. One thing that came through very clearly is the LGBTQ+ community has felt a lot of pain and frustration over recent events.
Yesterday, Susan apologized publicly for the pain some of these issues have caused. I share that feeling and especially regret that this happened during Pride month when we should be celebrating the incredible LGBTQ+ community you all have built at Google.
Our Gaygler and Trans communities have always been a core part of Google culture. You are a source of pride for us as Googlers, and also a source of hope for people globally who don’t feel comfortable being out in their own workplaces and communities. It’s important to me that we continue to work hard to ensure Google is a place where everyone feels included.
With respect to YouTube, Susan and the team are already taking a hard look at the harassment policies and will do this in consultation with many groups, including people who have themselves experienced harassment. We’re also thinking through ways to engage more with our LGBTQ+ community at important moments and get input from our ERG leads and representatives.
Our discussion yesterday was a great starting point. It was a tough conversation at times — and I really appreciate the honestly and rigor you brought to it. Thank you again for your candor, your ideas, and your commitment. Look forward to continuing the conversation. I am committed to taking action and working with you all to make our workplace more inclusive and to ensure our products work for everyone.
– Sundar
You might have noticed that, despite being nearly 300 words long, his letter never promised that Google would ban harassment or violence-inciting hate speech, despite their own rules. Google is still refusing to stand by their own rules and against hate speech and harassment that has already lead to real-world harassment of a journalist. Actual threats against a person aren’t enough to violate Google’s policies… if that person is LGBTQ.
LGBTQ YouTube Employees React
Like spitting in our face. YouTube claims to support the LGBTQ community during Pride, but then approves of hate speech and targeted harassment of LGBTQ people.
“I don’t want to be doing it. I just want to be doing my fucking job.”
Google and YouTube employees are left in a tough spot. On one hand, if they say nothing, LGBTQ people will continue to face harassment online. Hate speech will spread. That hate speech will dehumanize people and incite violence, as hate speech is designed to do. On the other hand, saying anything could lead to retaliation. They could lose the job they’ve worked hard for, a job they enjoy. Furthermore, they could face harassment from peers. But they know that what Google’s doing with YouTube is insulting and wrong.
“LGBT support channels get demonetized on a regular basis so by doing that they’re putting LGBT support and hate speech on the same footing… There should be no doubt that calling someone racial and homophobic slurs for years is not allowed on the platform”
Employees have petitioned YouTube to remove its Pride branding. But not because they hate LGBTQ people. LGBTQ people and allies are calling out YouTube’s hypocrisy. The company shouldn’t be allowed to co-opt a symbol of LGBTQ freedom from persecution while persecuting LGBTQ people and enabling hate speech and harassment of LGBTQ people. YouTube is playing both sides, and no one’s having it.
Fear of Google
Photo: Noah Berger/AP Photo
Google employees have a lot to fear. Google retaliates when they speak up, destroying people’s careers at Google. If you can’t get a lawyer, you’re going to have to deal with far more harsh retaliation than if you can get one, as Claire Stapleton found. Furthermore, even if your complaints don’t result in retaliation (maybe all your managers agree that hate speech, sexual assault, and harassment are bad, like any decent human being), you could still face doxxing from alt-righters at Google.
Google has a long history of retaliating against people with legitimate concerns. The company was permitting sexual harassment and protecting abusers. They then fought back against the employees who spoke up about that. A Google employee sent out a 10 page racist, sexist screed. The people who defended his sexism and racism are still at Google. The most vocal people who argued against such hate were fired. Furthermore, Google intentionally allows doxxing, though they could easily stop it, likely to just punish people who come forward even further. Google’s acting with mob tactics, using their most abhorrent employees to carry out their harassment.
With that in mind, LGBTQ employees are cautious to come forward and fight against YouTube’s rubber stamp of approval on homophobia, hate speech, and harassment on the platform. But, like those who stood up for LGBTQ rights 50 years ago this month outside of the Stonewall Inn in New York, they’re taking those personal risks to ensure the safety and rights of everyone else.
Hate speech censors the vulnerable and leads to violence. Harassment is unacceptable. These are already against YouTube’s rules. YouTube need to stop making exceptions to their rules to permit LGBTQ-targeted harassment and hate speech. YouTube’s hate needs to end.