The removal of “Don't Be Evil” from Google's motto in 2015 signified a massive change for the tech giant. From the outside, many took this alteration as a dangerous way forward for the company. According to multiple fired Google employees, it did.
Three fired Google employees caught Google being “Evil”
Reported by Vice, three fired Google employees are suing the tech giant for breaching its “Don't Be Evil” contract. While the company no longer has that phrase as its motto, the words are still part of the official Code of Conduct.
When working at Google, workers sign a contract that says: “Remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!.” However, the three employees maintain that this clause wasn't upheld when they were working at the company.
The lawsuit stems from an interaction that occurred back in 2019. All three employees claim they protested against the company selling cloud computing programs to Customs and Border Protection. The employees allegedly created a petition to stop Google from working with an organisation that imprisoned migrant children.
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Why were they fired from Google?
After starting the petition, all three employees were allegedly fired with in minutes of each other. However, the reasoning behind their removal was not officially listed as fighting back against Google’s decisions.
Instead, Google claims that the developers were fired for leaking “confidential” information to the press. Furthermore, all three are said to have been engaging in “systematic searches... outside the scope of their job.”
These three are not the only ex-Google employees to cite the company's wrongdoings Former Google executive Mo Gawdat claimed that he saw terrifying things at the company. Additionally, AI ethics engineer Timnit Gebru was allegedly fired for speaking out against the company's disregard for AI safety measures.
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