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Google Cancels All-Hands Meeting About Gender Controversy Over Online Harassment Fears

[Denis Linine / Shutterstock, Inc.]

Ian Miles Cheong Contributor
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Google CEO Sundar Pichai planned to hold a meeting Thursday addressing the company’s recent “anti-diversity” controversy, but it was canceled over fears of online harassment just two hours before it was to begin.

The all-hands meeting was scheduled following the leak of the “ideological echo chamber” memo that called the company’s diversity efforts into question. The tech giant subsequently fired its author, James Damore, for allegedly violating the company’s code of conduct.

According to Recode, worried employees reportedly expressed concerns with their bosses ahead of the planned meeting, fearing that they would be “outed” online. Several of them were featured in a Breitbart article, highlighting their efforts to create industry blacklists for colleagues who did not share their views on social justice.

The individuals were outed by their colleagues and former colleagues at Google, who took issue with their efforts to create an ideological echo chamber—proving that James Damore was right after all.

Right-wing firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos shared a list of politically active Google employees, some of whom publicly condemned Damore and the memo.

Looking at who works for Google, it all makes sense now…

Posted by Milo Yiannopoulos on Wednesday, August 9, 2017

“We had hoped to have a frank, open discussion today as we always do to bring us together and move forward,” Pichai wrote to employees.

“But our Dory questions appeared externally this afternoon, and on some websites Googlers are now being named personally,” he added. “Googlers are writing in, concerned about their safety and worried they may be ‘outed’ publicly for asking a question in the Town Hall.”

Pichai hoped to speak to all 60,000 of the company’s employees in a 30-minute meeting to address the contents of the leaked memo and Google’s decision to fire its author.

James Damore questioned the efficacy of the company’s diversity efforts and internal efforts from influential employees to stifle ideological dissent. Members of the media lied about the memo, with many declaring it sexist without even having read it.

Damore is now speaking out about being fired from Google. In an interview with Stefan Molyneux, the software engineer said he was “smeared” by company executives after tech publications like Recode, Mashable, and Gizmodo misrepresented his memo as a “sexist manifesto,” among a host of other unflattering descriptors.

Sundar Pichai has yet to schedule another meeting to address the issue with the rest of Google.

Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.