Google has reportedly cracked down on political discussion among its employees ahead of the election night that ended in Donald Trump's victory.
The tech giant moderated and removed election-related posts on an internal bulletin board called Memegen. CNBC reported.
Google previously enacted rules in September that tightened restrictions on political discussion and banned employees who violated the policy three times.
In a memo Monday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees to follow the company's “Personal Political Activity Policy” and said the company's goal is to “encourage people of all backgrounds and beliefs. The aim is to become a trusted source of information for the public.
“No matter who our voters choose, let us remember the role we play in our work through the products and businesses we build: to be a trusted source of information for people of all backgrounds and beliefs.” wrote Pichai. “We're going to keep it that way, and we have to keep it that way.”
According to a report from CNBC, some Google employees were outraged by the policy and mocked Google's internal community management team (ICMT), which is responsible for managing Memegen.
One employee joked, “Let's make Election Day a holiday to give ICMT a break.”
Another user reportedly complained that Google removed posts that did not appear to violate the ban.
Elsewhere, Google said some users noticed its search engine was showing an interactive map of voting locations for certain searches for Kamala Harris, but not for Trump. It caused a brief uproar on election day.
Google quickly identified the flaw and implemented a fix.
Google has tightened restrictions on political discussion amid signs of discord among its employees.
The company closed last March after intense employee pushback over Google's $1.2 billion “Project Nimbus” contract, in which Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government and military. I went so far as to temporarily shut down Memegen.
In April, the tech giant fired dozens of employees who participated in anti-Israel sit-ins at its offices in New York and California.
In an impassioned memo to employees that same month, Mr. Pichai said that Google is a “business, and we don't want people to interact with people who disrupt our co-workers, make them feel unsafe, or try to use the company as a personal platform.” This is not the place to take action.” To fight over destructive issues and debate politics. ”
Last month, the Alphabet union filed a federal labor complaint accusing Google of imposing an illegal “gag order” that prohibits employees from discussing pending antitrust litigation against the company.
A federal judge ruled in August that Google had an illegal monopoly on online search. Closing arguments in another Justice Department case targeting Google's digital advertising business are scheduled to be heard this month.
