Google is a massive tech company who’s known for the many products and services that they’ve built over the years. They’re also known for creating a workplace culture that’s fun, encourages creativity, and is generally considered to be a positive work environment. But a recent announcement has turned that into something that’s less than positive.
That workplace culture was revealed in an open letter written by a massive group of Google’s employees published in Medium. The open letter came out in response to the revelation that the company will be launching Project Dragonfly in China. As of now, there are well over 300 signatures attached to the letter. It also came out shortly after Project Dragonfly drew harsh criticism from American politicians and many human rights groups such as Amnesty International.
Project Dragonfly would be a censored search engine used only in China. Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai claimed that the project is still in early development, however, Pichai also admitted that should Project Dragonfly come to fruition, it would play a part in most, if not all search queries that take place anywhere in China.
The problem with this is that Google removed the search engine that shares their name in China back in 2010. With Project Dragonfly, however, the company would be obligated to follow any government order to remove content that they no longer want available to citizens. Essentially, Google would go against freedom of expression and the privacy rights of their users.
The open letter came about from fellow Google employees wanting to protest Project Dragonfly. They made points about the response from management regarding the issue didn’t meet their standards, and wanting better communication overall. The biggest complaint came from the point that many employees wanted to work for the tech giant originally due to their core company values.
Overall, due to Project Dragonfly and other controversial matters, employees are now convinced that Google cares more about turning a profit than staying true to the values that employees initially loved. However, Google continues to insist that they aren’t ready to launch Project Dragonfly whatsoever. Needless to say, it’s hard to tell what exactly will happen next.
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