Google Employees Speak Out Against Project Dragonfly

AlphaAtlas

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Mirroring a similar protest by Amazon employees last month, Google employees have published an open letter on Medium protesting Google's censored search engine project for the Chinese government. The employees say many of them joined Google back when the company openly protested China's censorship policies, instead of working with them, and claim the company used to be "willing to place its values above its profits." By my count, only 91 employees have signed the letter so far, but Medium says they're updating the post with signatures as they come in, and the letter says "thousands" of Google employees have raised their voices for months.

We join with Amnesty International in demanding that Google cancel Dragonfly. We also demand that leadership commit to transparency, clear communication, and real accountability. Google is too powerful not to be held accountable. We deserve to know what we’re building and we deserve a say in these significant decisions.
 
This companies culture is such a bubble. Can you imagine putting together a petition at your own workplace in protest of a particular account or business partnership... and soliciting other employees to sign haha? I work at a nice place but would be escorted to the parking lot in about 5 minutes flat.
 
If there were more employees protesting against the Department of Defense, then shame on them for being hypocrites.

DoD protests can cause a reverse in course, but not this?

Well, if Google projects that they can't compete with Baidu and the likes, then Google has a chance to look like the good guy
 
Dear Google employees,

It's admirable that you're willing to stand up for something you believe in. But, are you considering the fact that there are others who would love to work for Google?

Signed,
The millions of people around the world anxiously looking to take your job.
 
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No, as an employee you don't "deserve a say" in any decision the company makes. You can leave at any time if something bothers you.
 
Cry me a river. Go work for someone else if you dont like the business decisions.
you forgot to note that you ain't working for too many companies if you don't like "the business decisions" of cozying up to PRC.

Dear Google employees,

It's admirable that you're willing to stand up for something you believe in. But, are you considering the fact that there are others who would love to work for Google?

Signed,
The millions of people around the world anxiously looking to take your job.
What tune to sing indeed if the millions are filled by China.

I am only somewhat serious though.
 
you forgot to note that you ain't working for too many companies if you don't like "the business decisions" of cozying up to PRC.


What tune to sing indeed if the millions are filled by China.

I am only somewhat serious though.

Well then either your principles are important to you or they arent...
 
Reagan said he didn't trade weapons for hostages
Bush said no new taxes
Obama campaigned with the phrase "Change we can believe in"
And Google said "Do no evil"

bottom line is people (or entities) of power will absolute lie, mislead, or otherwise be naive in what they say but ultimately whatever keeps them in power is where they will go.
 
I'll take one of those jobs. I won't complain one word. So long as I get Google money working remotely.
 
Good luck that awesome China internet censoring crap is headed to the us! In China there credit rating is not about there net to debt ratio it's about there social media behavior. Talk bad about the government and say bye bye to sending your kids to collage or going on vacations ect. Your voice is controlled.
 
Man, if I were one of you activists, I would give em the big-fat-finger as you walked out the door!!

(as I hurredly get a resume together to send to Google)
 
Reagan said he didn't trade weapons for hostages
Bush said no new taxes
Obama campaigned with the phrase "Change we can believe in"
And Google said "Do no evil"

bottom line is people (or entities) of power will absolute lie, mislead, or otherwise be naive in what they say but ultimately whatever keeps them in power is where they will go.

That's the trick, just lie through your teeth to get what you want. I think there's a quote somewhere along the lines of "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.".
 
That's the trick, just lie through your teeth to get what you want. I think there's a quote somewhere along the lines of "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.".

There are times when I actually do agree with Anonymous' slogan of "we do not forgive". This is one of them.
 
These worried employees really need to study what their company does to earn its billions. Google has been censoring search results for many years, they just use a different term, rankings. If Google likes you, your site gets listed toward the top. If Google doesn't like you, your site is many screen scrolls down. If Google really doesn't like you, well that is what Bing is for.
 
I can't wait til Google starts firing employees which in time they absolutely will.
This country is doomed with all these snowflakes infecting the world.

I don't know. On one hands, snowflakes can be irritating in a land (Uncle Sam's club) where people do pump and dump money into. On the other hand, I am not too hopeful at a place (China.Inc) where you got social credit, no snowflake and people flock to take money out of.
 
Dear Google employees,

It's admirable that you're willing to stand up for something you believe in. But, are you considering the fact that there are others who would love to work for Google?

Signed,
The millions of people around the world anxiously looking to take your job.

"The millions of people in the world still unqualified to take your job."

There fixed that for you.
 
"The millions of people in the world still unqualified to take your job."

There fixed that for you.

C'mon. There's armies of hundreds of thousands coming out of India and China per year that could potentially take the job on qualification basis... from what we've been told.
 
So, if there's someone I didn't like that worked at Google, I just found a great place to send their name :)

Edit: Oh, and should've organised a company walk out day to protest if this was meant to actually mean something more then a medium post. You don't touch the bottom line, companies don't care.
 
I am a little reluctant to bring this up, but what would those same employees do if they found out that Google had been approached by the US government with a request to maintain a presence in China? Who else is in a better position than Google (with Google search, Android, GMail, etc.) to provide insight into what the Chinese people are thinking, doing, searching, or their outlook for the future? Our State Department loves Big Data.

I'm not saying that Google is cooperating with the US government, I have no information on that at all. And I'm not saying that Google is being altruistic and not just looking at their bottom line, trying to protect their stake in the world's biggest market. But I do know that similar requests by our government have happened in the past.
 
Well, they the "activist employees" also demanded Google never work with the US Department of Defense, so perhaps they should move to another country as well.

Yeah, but Google actually decided not to work for the Department of Defense, because, you know, morals and all that. The same morals that seem to make them ok to create a censored search engine just for China!
 
Yeah, but Google actually decided not to work for the Department of Defense, because, you know, morals and all that. The same morals that seem to make them ok to create a censored search engine just for China!

DoD does not have the same kind of market reach that China.Inc have. Even a fraction of 1.3 billion is too big of an incentive.
You know it, so never mind Google.
 
I do honestly support anyone that puts them self out there for the benefits of others.

Maybe I just dont value money above morals
 
is $$ enough? no, we want $$$$$$, even though 99.9% of us don't even see the money.

why would someone support doing business of which your product will definitely be abused and cause unjustified confinement and interrogation, if you don't even see any personal benefit at all ?

Google ain't paying more taxes from this, and is certainly not paying your local district taxes. Heck, as a Google employee, you probably not high enough on the ladder to get any increment or bonus from doing business with China.
 
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Sounds like Google need to lay some people off.

All for people standing up for what they believe in, but Google is a business. They do not have to work for them.
 
Sounds like Google need to lay some people off.

All for people standing up for what they believe in, but Google is a business. They do not have to work for them.
I'm glad they signed their names so Google knows who to fire.

On the other hand, you and I as general consumers do need to somehow vote with wallets over Google's business decisions. Yes, there's not much sympathy for the Google employees, but there shouldn't be an ounce of sympathy for Google here either.
 
Good-luck. Some of their employees did quit over the DOD drone stuff and google changed it's policy, maybe this time it will work too. I always duckduckgo myself. Never really cared for google anyway very seldom used them, as others have said their search results are biased.
 
DoD does not have the same kind of market reach that China.Inc have. Even a fraction of 1.3 billion is too big of an incentive.
You know it, so never mind Google.

Then they should stop acting holier-than-thou about everything and admit that, like every other corporation, the only thing they actually care about is money.

Remember the whole “don’t be evil” motto? Google apparently doesn’t.
 
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Yeah, they probably forgot that motto right after removed it :)
 
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