Google Fires Diversity Memo Writer For Expressing His Opinion

In a recent kerfuffle within Google, an engineer anonymously posted a manifesto talking about the unnecessary amount of work that went into promoting diversity within the work place. That engineer was recently identified and subsequently fired for daring to express opposing views regarding the matter. Was this termination justified or is it proof that Google has become intolerant of opposing ideologies?

The author of the manifesto is Google engineer James Damore and following the circulation of the memo all throughout the company, he was terminated from his job. In a sense, this really wasn’t surprising as he became something of a symbol for both sides on the debate over sexism, Reuters reports.

Fortunately for Damore, his message reached WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who quickly offered him a job. Even so, his dismissal from Google does bring up the uncomfortable topic of whether or not the company had the right to force their workers to conform to a particular way of thinking and stamping out conflicting points of views.

In a Tweet, Assange disparaged Google’s treatment of its employees, particularly with how the company essentially shamed Damore with the termination for simply expressing his opinion.

"Censorship is for losers," Tweet reads. "Women & men deserve respect. That includes not firing them for politely expressing ideas but rather arguing back."

Google CEO Sundar Pichai also recently commented on the issue, sending out a memo that lambasted Damore, Recode reports. In the memo, Pichai stated that the engineer had crossed a line and was supposedly promoting harmful ideas.

“To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK,” the memo reads.

So far, Google has refused to comment on the termination, citing such reasons as not discussing individual employees on principle. One thing is clear, however; while Google touts that it encourages freedom of thought among its workers, this recent termination contradicts this claim by a monumental amount.