Google’s former head of international relations said he was forced put after he expressed concerns about censorship, racism, and workplace culture within the company.
Ross LaJeuness, a former deputy chief of staff for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, left Google last April. He was hired in 2008 to work within the company’s international relations division. From 2010, he led lead public policy for Asia Pacific and helped the company navigate its refusal to assist China by developing a censored search engine. He claimed Google implemented its former motto of “don’t be evil” by “putting human rights ahead of the bottom line.”
He claimed the decision not to pursue a censored platform for China frustrated those who believed shutting the door on the massive marketplace was bad for stock prices. The company ultimately agreed to develop the software, called “dragonfly,” outraging LaJeuness, 50. He said he brought his opposition to the project up with his superiors but was being “sidelined” for speaking out.
“As someone who had consistently advocated for a human rights-based approach, I was being sidelined from the on-going conversations on whether to launch Dragonfly. I then realized that the company had never intended to incorporate human rights principles into its business and product decisions,” LaJeuness wrote in a post to Medium. “Just when Google needed to double down on a commitment to human rights, it decided to instead chase bigger profits and an even higher stock price.”
He noted that the “don’t be evil” mantra was also scrapped within the company, where racial biases were prevalent.
“Senior colleagues bullied and screamed at young women, causing them to cry at their desks. At an all-hands meeting, my boss said, ‘Now you Asians come to the microphone too. I know you don’t like to ask questions.’ At a different all-hands meeting, the entire policy team was separated into various rooms and told to participate in a ‘diversity exercise’ that placed me in a group labeled ‘homos’ while participants shouted out stereotypes such as ‘effeminate’ and ‘promiscuous,’” LaJeuness explained. “Colleagues of color were forced to join groups called ‘Asians’ and ‘Brown people’ in other rooms nearby.”
When LaJeuness confronted human resources about these incidents, he claimed it triggered the company to decide to cut his position. Despite glowing reviews and other openings within the team, LaJeuness had to leave the company.
He blamed Google CEO Sundar Pichai for turning Google away from the don’t-be-evil vision of its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. He also claimed that competition with other companies led Google to feel it must develop products to assist authoritarian governments or another company would just fill the void. He called for more government intervention into big technology companies.
“The role of these companies in our daily lives, from how we run our elections to how we entertain and educate our children, is just too great to leave in the hands of executives who are accountable only to their controlling shareholders who — in the case of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Snap — happen to be fellow company insiders and founders,” LaJeuness said.
LaJeuness claimed he was inspired to write the tell-all about Google because of the questions he faced on the campaign trail in Maine. The former executive is running for U.S. Senate in Maine as a Democrat. He faces several other Democrats hoping to run against Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.
UPDATE: In a statement to the Washington Examiner, a Google spokeswoman denied that LaJeuness was singled out for speaking to human resources about the alleged mistreatment of gay and Asian staffers.
“Discussions that make anyone feel like they don’t belong have no place at Google and we absolutely want to hear about and address any concerns. All instances of inappropriate conduct reported to us are investigated rigorously, and over the past year we have simplified how employees can raise concerns and provided more transparency into the investigations process,” she said.
She maintained that LaJeuness could have stayed with Google despite the company reorganization, saying, “Ross’ role was eliminated as part of the broad reorganization of our policy team, which was widely reported and which impacted many members of the team. As part of this reorganization, Ross was offered a new position at the exact same level and compensation, which he declined to accept.”
