Amid concern about Google’s ability to censor online content, the tech company made an attempt last week to curb some of the internal discussion and debate among its employees in order to promote a more productive work environment.
Google issued a set of “Community Guidelines” last week in an effort to restrain its employees from trolling in internal messaging, saying it would punish employees who discriminate against or attack their colleagues, or participate in conversations that are “disruptive to a productive work environment.” They also are allowing their volunteer employee moderators more power in monitoring thousands of intranet discussions, including letting them develop tools to better enforce the rules, according to The Wall Street Journal. While Google has punished employees in the past for violating its code of conduct, the guidelines represent the company’s first explicit intervention in these sorts of internal debate discussions.
These debates among Google’s employees have gone on for several years, including discussion on a range of political and social issues in email discussion groups and on a discussion board called Memegen. Among the groups are “Activists at Google,” comprised of people who criticize policies of the Trump administration, “Militia at Google,” a discussion board dedicated to the argument for guns to be allowed in the workplace, “Conservatives at Google,” a group that claims discrimination against conservative candidates, and “Googlers For Animals,” a group that tried to invite the PETA president.
One event last year that aroused a great deal of debate among Google employees was the firing of James Damore because of a piece he wrote expressing his belief that gender differences explain why the company employs fewer women than men.
Google’s attempt to govern its own internal debates comes at a time when many politicians, members of the media, and consumer groups have expressed concern about how tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter handle free speech issues for the general public, as the companies have the potential to influence billions of online users. Some are concerned, for example, about Google’s attempts to block content that could be perceived as hateful, extremist, or dangerous.
Facebook shut down one of its own internal discussion forums shortly before the 2016 presidential election. The name of the forum was “FB Anon,” and people familiar with the matter reported that it had become a platform for racist and sexist comments, according to The Wall Street Journal.
