Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google
Anindito Mukherjee | Anindito Mukherjee Bloomberg | Getty Images
Google has been censoring and deleting election-related conversations within its employees, CNBC has learned.
Ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. election, Google executives warned employees not to express political views and comments on a popular internal discussion forum called Memegen, according to letters seen by CNBC. Despite the warnings, employees continued to post election-related memes and criticize company policies Tuesday.
The latest leadership guidance suggests the company is taking expanded action to moderate internal political discussions. Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai sent a memo on Monday reminding employees that people seek “high-quality and reliable information” from the company’s services. These include through the company’s Google Search, Google News and YouTube services.
“Whoever voters entrust us with, let us remember the role we play in our work, through the products we build, and as a business: to be a trusted source of information for people of all backgrounds and beliefs,” Pichai wrote. “We will and must maintain this.”
As one of America’s most important technology leaders, Pichai himself has recently been drawn into broader political discussions. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump claims to have multiple Telephone with Pichai in recent weeks.
Google has been clamping down on internal dialogue since 2019, when it introduced a policy prohibiting employees from making comments that “insult, demean, or humiliate” colleagues. The rules also prevent employees from engaging in “heated debates about politics or the latest news stories.”
The policy marks a major shift in company culture. Some employees objected to the restrictions, saying they were too broad, CNBC found at the time.
Since 2021, Google has been dealing with internal objections regarding Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint contract with Google Amazon Provides cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government and military. In March, Google briefly shut down its internal message board after employees posted comments about the company’s Nimbus contract.
In a 2019 settlement, the National Labor Commission ordered Google to post a list of employee rights at its headquarters, which included the right to discuss workplace conditions. Google has dismissed a complaint filed by a former employee accusing the company of restricting free speech and firing him for expressing conservative views.
The company declined to comment.
No political discussion
In September, Google announced additional updates to its Memegen guidelines, including expanding the forum’s limits on political discussion, according to internal documents seen by CNBC. The company also said that if employees violate the policy three times, they will be banned from using the platform. Google said it will also use artificial intelligence technology to better detect illegal content.
“Memegen will no longer allow the posting of personal political views, including national policies/events, geopolitical content (such as international relations, military conflicts, economic actions, territorial disputes, and other international affairs not related to Google), or the sharing of news related to Comments,” one document said.
A document expanding the policy said political debate drove the “vast majority” of content removal.
According to images seen by CNBC, Google recently added a yellow banner at the top of Memegen that reads: “Memegen is not a place for personal political opinions or remarks.”
One employee wrote that Google’s Internal Community Management Team (ICMT) removed their meme, but they did not believe it was a violation. Many of the memes seen by CNBC included messages to “send support” and “encouragement” to colleagues. Others made fun of the company’s expanded policies and ICMT.
“This meme is a political statement, please report it to ICMT immediately,” one meme said. Another read: “Make Election Day a holiday and give the ICMT a break.” Another meme just said “aaaaaaaa” over a black void.
Read Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s full memo to employees below
Hi Googlers,
Tomorrow is Election Day, and many people in America will go to the polls to cast their votes, from school boards to judges to Congress and the President.
The teams at Google and YouTube have been working hard to ensure that our platforms provide voters with high-quality and reliable information, just as we have done for many other elections around the world – in fact, dozens of countries have held important, high-profile elections This year’s elections are fiercely contested, from France to India, the United Kingdom, Mexico and beyond, with well over a billion people set to vote by 2024.
We should be proud of our work and the efforts our teams put into ensuring campaigns are secure, providing accurate information about where and how to vote, and providing digital advertising solutions to campaigns. Thank you to everyone who worked hard day and night throughout the campaign season and vote counting process.
As with other elections, the results will be a major talking point in living rooms and elsewhere around the world. Of course, the results will have important consequences. No matter who voters entrust, let us remember what we do at work, through the products we build, and the role we play as a business: to be a trusted source of information for people of all backgrounds and beliefs. We will and must maintain this. In this spirit, everyone must continue to abide by our Community Guidelines and Personal Political Activity Policy.
After Election Day, we will continue our work to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Al provides us with a profound opportunity to make progress on this mission, build great products and partnerships, drive innovation, and make significant contributions to the state and local economies. When we focus on this, our company is at its best.
Thanks,
sundar
watch: Google: More than a quarter of new code is now generated by artificial intelligence
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