On Sept. 12, Breitbart released an explosive video from inside Google’s first all-staff meeting after the 2016 election. In an hour-long forum broadcast internally to employees, the post-election grief and confusion of Google executives was on display. At a time where President Trump has seized on the conservative movement’s anger and paranoia about censorship in Silicon Valley, this leak is sure to throw fuel on the fire. There surely are several moments in the video of over-the-top alarmism about what a Trump presidency will look like, but there is also a great deal of evidence here that Google sees the political divide we’re living in today — and wants to understand it, not pick winners and losers through search engine censorship.
The first thing that stands out in this company-wide grieving session is the frequent mention of “Google’s values.” One speaker after another talks about how Trump’s election and campaign were both in sharp opposition to the company’s core values. A short search online turns up Google’s guiding philosophy, Ten Things We Know To Be True. It’s all very benign, good-natured corporate rhetoric aimed at creating flexible and fulfilling workspaces for their young staff, and speaks to the abstract, cliched concept of “doing the most good.”
So when corporate leadership cites “Google’s values” in the context of a political loss between a Republican and a Democrat running for president, they could stand to be more explicit about what exactly in the GOP platform they find so disturbing. Yet instead of offering this clarity, condemning Trump’s rhetoric and intensifying the fear of their staff takes priority — at least at this meeting.
But what does it even mean to be “Googley,” as Vice President Eileen Naughton cites while explaining the corporate culture? To be “Googley” used to be tied to a broad philosophical concept of “doing no evil,” which was removed from their code of conduct in March. Naughton seems to indicate that the hugs, caregiving, and love shared since the election defines “Googliness” within the company. In the leaked video, you might have noticed the cutaway shots to the staff in the auditorium which show fully grown men and women wearing multi-colored propeller hats, in droves.
[Also read: Google News is heavily biased – but it’s not rigged]
It’s a painful sight, and one that encapsulates the juvenile spirit of the event itself and more importantly, what happens when a company inherits employees who are the product of colleges where adulthood has been put on hold. If there is a real problem with Google, it’s that they felt a need as a technology company to hold such a pitiful meeting about partisan politics. It’s eerily reminiscent of the type of campus coddling infecting colleges nationwide, like when the University of Kansas and Barnard College held “grief counseling” sessions for students after Trump’s election.
This is clear evidence that the problems on our campuses will spread to other parts of society. The groupthink of Google’s employees is now threatening free enterprise and technological innovation, as Washington’s interest in their activities grows.
That is not to say the growing appetite by Republicans to regulate Google is legitimate. It is not. Looking back to Google’s guiding philosophy, they believe strongly in focusing on their users — all else will follow. Google by nature, and as further evidenced in this meeting, is intensely focused on their entire customer base and to addressing their blind spots. Naughton specifically cites Google’s majority liberal staff and the importance of making sure that conservative techies are not only present, but feel comfortable speaking up in the company.
Still, it’s true that some members of Google’s executive team were more transparent than others in their unabashed support for Hillary Clinton. None of this is a crime, and it doesn’t constitute political collusion or evidence of technological bias by Google. Is the corporate culture at Google mostly liberal? Yes. This was known already, but it really doesn’t matter.
If there is anything to be learned from the release of this video, it’s that Google’s executives are still united in a commitment to the foundational principles of liberal democracy, free expression, and gaining more understanding of this populist moment by seeking knowledge and feedback — their own political views aside. They are watching closely the rise of techno-totalitarian regimes in Europe, China, and Russia, as well as the explosion of racial and economic resentment here in the United States. They’re bothered by these trends, and we should be too.
But Google also correctly identifies that global wealth, prosperity, and overall human well-being have never been so high. At Google, free markets and the free dissemination of information unmitigated by the government in democratic countries are held up as ideal. It’s true that income inequality looms large in the taped discussion, but despite all the moaning at Breitbart about how Google supposedly demonizes the Trump base, corporate leadership is laser-focused on the feeling of being left behind that drove voters into the arms of Trump and politicians like him around the world in the first place.
Google sees the fear and sense of stagnation in middle America, the anger that jobs are lost and outsourced to faceless foreigners halfway across the world. If anything, this leaked video only confirms that Google understands the moment we are in, and just how high the stakes are. Not for Democrats in Washington — but for the preservation of free societies across the globe, facing down populist movements that threaten to undermine all the very real progress we have already made.
Stephen Kent (@Stephen_Kent89) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the spokesperson for Young Voices and host of Beltway Banthas, a Star Wars & politics podcast in D.C.
