A Diversity Meeting organized by Google had to be canceled because a right-wing conservative leaked the names of employees online. The meeting was to take place in the town hall, but with the public singling out employees online by name, many of the workers expressed concern for their safety. The individual who leaked the names has been fired and Google is seeking other arrangements for a conversation on diversity.
Employees expressed concern for their safety
According to Variety, a right-wing engineer at Google has been fired after he leaked the names of the company's employees in the run up to the diversity meeting.
The individual in question was James Damore and he sent out an email stating that it has been genetically proven that women cannot perform their jobs as easily as men can.
This caused many other right-wing people to come forward and attack the employees individually, which made the Google workers feel that they were unsafe. The employees were being called out by name and sent threatening messages by right-wing activists who did not want the diversity meeting to go forward.
The firing of James Damore was the catalyst, and Damore has since spoken out publicly about being fired. The former Google employee stated that the company smeared his name instead of looking at the facts. It remains unclear whether or not Damore will be filing legal action against the company.
Last Wednesday an individual by the name of Milo Yiannopoulos -- who is a right-wing conservative -- posted the Twitter biographies of eight Google employees who had criticized the memo Damore sent out. People immediately began to attack these employees online, as Yiannopoulos stated that looking at who works at Google, the current state of the company is unsurprising.
Google CEO made a statement about the cancellation of the meeting
According to the New York Post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai made a statement about the company canceling its diversity meeting. He stated that the company had hoped to open a frank discussion to bring people together, tackle issues, and move forward as a unit.
Sundar then revealed that the company is not ditching the idea for an open and safe diversity meeting and instead have decided to move it to a number of forums where people can gather and converse safely. Many of the employees at Google were outraged with the memo that was sent out, and have stated that it only re-enforces the gender stereotype that they are trying to erase.
