Google on Friday released a new set of community guidelines that are meant to crack down on what employees can say inside the company.
Employees are now barred from making statements that "insult, demean, or humiliate" other employees, the company's extended workforce, business partners or others. The rules also discourage Google employees from engaging in a "raging debate over politics or the latest news story" and to avoid conversations that are generally disruptive.
"Our primarily responsibility is to do the work we've each been hired to do, not to spend working time on debates about non-work topics," the policy states. The rules explicitly discourage workers from talking about politics on Google's internal mailing lists and forums.
"Community guidelines exist to support the healthy and open discussion that has always been a part of our culture. They help create an environment where we can come together as a community in pursuit of our shared mission and serve our users," a Google spokesperson said in a statement.
"Working at Google comes with tremendous responsibility. Billions of people rely on us every day for high-quality, reliable information. It's critical that we honor that trust and uphold the integrity of our products and services. The guidelines are official policy and apply when employees are communicating in the workplace."
As part of the move, Google is also making changes to how it moderates discourse and enforces the new community guidelines on internal forums and mailing lists.
It's rolling out a "central flagging tool" that lets employees report content that may violate Google's rules and putting in place a new team of community managers that can review those flagged posts, a Google spokesperson said. Moderators will first try to educate employees on why they may have violated the rules, but can also enforce disciplinary actions where they see fit.
The new policies are a stark diversion from the internal culture Google has become known for. The company has traditionally fostered a culture of free speech and debate inside the company, with employees often getting into heated conversations about political and social issues.
This has led to extensive turmoil inside the company over what the limits of employee free speech should be. Many current and former Google employees have spoken out publicly about the issue.
Earlier this month, former Google engineer Kevin Cernekee claimed he was fired for being an outspoken conservative and alleged that Google fosters a culture of politically biased bullying. In 2017, James Damore, a former Google engineer, also claimed the company discriminated against him and others for having conservative views.
Last year, a group of liberal employees organized walkout protests for policies against sexual harassment. One of the employees who led the movement and later left the company alleged continued retaliation from Google's top brass.
Google has also faced heightened scrutiny from President Donald Trump and some Republican lawmakers who have accused the company of anti-conservative bias.
Another section of the guidelines encourages Google employees to be careful when discussing company activities publicly, instructing workers to not make false or misleading statements about Google products or businesses that could "undermine trust" in the company.
So Google finally implemented new guidelines limiting politics from the workplace. What does NSG think of this?
I’m happy Google is finally taking action on its political problem instead of remaining in a state of denial, and hopefully this will be one of the first steps to solving the bias problem in the company. This is coming a week or so following the release of the Project Veritas video and a subsequent PragerU video on the topic of political bias.
