Google cancels all-hands meeting due to employee worries of online harassment | Hacker News Reader

Google cancels all-hands meeting due to employee worries of online harassment

recode.net

41 pointspulisse15 comments

Earlier post of same article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14985001

I can't help but notice the deep irony that this doxxing is happening at Google, home of Eric "privacy is a privilege, not a right" Schmidt. Remember that guy, Eric "If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place" Schmidt?

This really sucks for the employees currently involved in this story, but at the corporate level, Google made their bed on that particular point. So remember people: "privacy is dead" and "anonymity is too dangerous" according to Google, except when it suits them that it shouldn't be.

It seems llike the proper response to this controversy would be to use some of their cash to fund a internal group to research and replicate some of the studies mentioned in the original google memo, to refute and possibly further the understanding for some kind of practical knowledge gain, instead of A) firing the employee bringing up some concerns and b) holding meetings about why the issue needed to be a point of contention (doubling down) in the organization

I don't think Google is capable of doing meaningful research on this, because I don't get the sense that they'd accept any results that don't refute the memo. Google would have a vested interest in the research having a pre-decided outcome.

I just want to fk recode 100 times for circulating real engineer names.

Literally every one of their bios says they work for Google. My cat could’ve found them ..

It was a lowrez repost of a screenshot and most of them aren't using their real names, at least not legibly.

Shame about the doxing(on either side of the discussion) but I'm not sure why it precipitates cancelling the meeting

Probably to keep employees who ask live questions from being harassed.

Were they...unaware this could happen? Was James Damore not harassed over his internal memo?

Angry mobs are something that cannot be controlled. There's been a lot of talk about emboldening but it seems many believe that it's ok to normalize mobs since it will be their mob that wins. That... is not guaranteed.

It does seem like a pretext. My guess is that the execs realized that they have a bigger sh*tstorm--both internally and externally--than they realized on their hands, and want some more time to think and to let things die down. Probably smart, actually.

Yes, it is a pretext.

And one in which the SJWs at Google paint other people as "the ones preventing them from being able to speak".

Meanwhile, Google leadership & SJWs are the ones creating an environment hostile to other's opinions - as evidenced by the smear campaign and the firing.

Its a nice excuse. 50% of googlers disagree with the firing of damore.

This will be a shitstorm for google internally and out.

yeah funny how the ceo's response was like "most of you agreed and the rest said we didnt go far enough" or something to that effect. suuure....

completely delusional and/or disingenuous.

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