Editorial

Anti-Conservative Censorship Spreads From Campuses To Big Tech

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Censorship, discrimination and mandatory “anti-bias” training sessions that cross the line into political indoctrination are now common stories for conservatives on college campuses. But they are increasingly the norm at another haven of young progressives: Silicon Valley.

A class action lawsuit filed on behalf of former Google engineer James Damore and other right-of-center Google employees describes a culture of censorship and discrimination: managers openly discuss blacklists “meant to encourage and coordinate the sabotage of promotions, performance reviews, and employment opportunities for those with conservative viewpoints,” Google employees are pressured to undergo one-sided “Bias Busting” re-education sessions focusing on white male privilege, and employees risk their careers by speaking out against progressive orthodoxy, the lawsuit states. The suit claims that Google illegally discriminates against white male employees as part of the company’s diversity efforts.

Internal messages included in the lawsuit reveal employees openly conspiring against Damore after he shared a memo criticizing the company’s diversity polices and calling for more tolerance of conservative viewpoints. “You know, there are just certain ‘alternative views, including different political views’ which I do not want people to feel safe to share here,” one high-ranking Google employee wrote on a company message chain. Added another employee: “If Google management cares enough about diversity and inclusion, they should, and I urge them to, send a clear message by not only terminating Mr. Damore, but also severely disciplining or terminating those who have expressed support.” Damore was fired shortly afterward.

That’s just what’s going on internally at Google.

Google’s new fact-checkers, The Daily Caller revealed Tuesday, are almost exclusively devoted to policing right-of-center media outlets and wrongfully attributed false statements to TheDC. Left-of-center outlets received no such policing from Google, which has previously censored content that doesn’t align with its political goals. (RELATED: Google And Facebook Co-Sponsoring Protest Of Pro-Life Women’s Health Care Clinic)

It’s not just Google, either: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (which is owned by Google) have all exhibited the same pattern of discrimination and censorship against conservatives.

Facebook regularly buried conservative viewpoints from its trending topics section, several former employees told Gizmodo. YouTube and Google have targeted conservative and independent video channels for censorship and demonitization. Both Facebook and Google empowered left-wing fact-checkers to discredit conservative voices on behalf of the companies, with little oversight. Twitter buried tweets damaging to the Clinton campaign and censors conservatives but allowed racist death threats against Trump FCC chairman Ajit Pai.

Conservatives face discrimination, censorship and even violence when left-wing authoritarians run a college campus. But what happens when left-wing authoritarians run the most powerful companies in the world?