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Google updates sexual harassment policies following protest
Google has faced quite a bit of criticism and pushback regarding how it has handled sexual harassment accusations in the past, and thousands of employees walked out of their offices in protest last week. Now, ahead of a company town hall meeting, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has released new policies that will guide how the company handles such accusations going forward. "Over the past few weeks Google's leaders and I have heard your feedback and have been moved by the stories you've shared," Pichai wrote. "We recognize that we have not always gotten everything right in the past and we are sincerely sorry for that. It's clear we need to make some changes."
Google Walkout protest included 20,000 participants Friday
According to its organizers, a protest put together over the last week pulled together 20,000 workers in 50 Google offices around the world who walked out at 11:10 AM local time yesterday. While the response came to a boil after the New York Times wrote about misconduct and payouts among high-ranking execs, as several participants outlined in an essay published by The Cut, the issues run far deeper than that.
Google Walkout leaders call for transparency on sexual misconduct
The organizers of the Google employee walkout have outlined how they want the company to address sexual misconduct at the company, and they're quite clear in their demands. The Walkout for Real Change group is primarily focused on accountability and transparency, starting with an end to forced arbitration for harassment and discrimination cases, which tends to keep cases secret. This would give staff the power to take these cases to court. Employees also want the right to bring a "co-worker, representative or supporter" with them when meeting human resources to discuss claims.
Google 'Walkout For Real Change' to include 'thousands' Thursday
One week after a New York Times report dug into incidents of sexual misconduct among high-ranking Google and Alphabet executives -- followed by departures afterward that included large payouts or continued employment -- employees are proceeding with their planned protest. The Google Walkout For Real Change has listed five specific demands: An end to Forced Arbitration in cases of harassment and discrimination for all current and future employees. A commitment to end pay and opportunity inequity. A publicly disclosed sexual harassment transparency report. A clear, uniform, globally inclusive process for reporting sexual misconduct safely and anonymously. Elevate the Chief Diversity Officer to answer directly to the CEO and make recommendations directly to the Board of Directors. Appoint an Employee Rep to the Board. At 11:10 AM in their local time zones, starting in Tokyo, employees and contractors began walking out in solidarity and leaving this flyer behind. Organizers have said they expect thousands to participate. Since the report surfaced, CEO Sundar Pichai said "We are dead serious about making sure we provide a safe and inclusive workplace. We want to assure you that we review every single complaint about sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct, we investigate and we take action." According to Vanity Fair, he said in a memo that managers "are aware of the activities planned for Thursday."
Uber, Google, Facebook: Your experiments have gone too far
It was 2014, around the time when Travis Kalanick referred to Uber as his chick-magnet "Boober" in a GQ article, that I'd realized congestion in San Francisco had gone insane. Before there was Uber, getting across town took about ten minutes by car and there was nowhere to park, ever. With Boober in play, there was parking in places there never were spaces, but the streets were so jammed with empty, one-person "gig economy" cars circling, sitting in bus zones, mowing down bicyclists whilst fussing with their phones, still endlessly going nowhere, alone, that walking across the city was faster.
Swiss soccer fans interrupt game to protest esports
While a growing number of professional sports leagues are supporting esports, not everyone is too pleased that they're doing so. This weekend, fans of two Swiss soccer teams -- Young Boys and Basel -- protested the rise of esports during a game, hurling tennis balls and video game console controllers onto the field around 15 minutes in. Some of the controllers appeared to have "fuck esports" written on them. Fans on both sides also unfurled banners, with one featuring a giant pause button and another saying "scheiss esports."
Google employees push back on censored China search engine (update)
Employees at Google are protesting the company's work on a censored search engine for China, the New York Times reports, signing a letter that calls for more transparency and questions the move's ethics. Reports of the search engine surfaced earlier this month, leaving many to wonder how the company could justify it after publicly pulling its Chinese search engine in 2010 due to the country's censorship practices. The letter, which is circulating on Google's internal communications system, has been signed by approximately 1,000 employees, according to the New York Times' sources.
Google staff reportedly refused to work on government security tool
Bloomberg reports today that earlier this year, a group of Google employees refused to work on a security tool that would have opened up more military contracts to the company. The tool in question is air gap technology that would be key to the development of the secure cloud configurations required by government agencies. Without it, Google might be left in the "Moderate" security rating it has been granted by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, while others like Microsoft and Amazon have products with "High" ratings that give them access to additional contracts.
Sri Lanka cuts off access to social networks to curb violence (updated)
In an effort to curb extremist violence in Sri Lanka, government officials have ordered some social networks to shut down. ABC News' anonymous source says that the blockage affects Facebook, Instagram, Viber and WhatsApp, specifically. In capital Colombo, some are blocked wholesale while others have apparently been slowed down considerably. Officials are using traditional means to counter the attacks, like instituting a curfew.
Iran blocks internet services in bid to quash protests
It's a busy weekend for oppressive governments trying to suppress digital communication. Iran has blocked mobile access to at least Telegram and Instagram as it tries to thwart protests that started over economic concerns (particularly inflation), but have extended into broader resistance to the government and clerical rule. Officials claim the censorship is meant to "maintain peace," but the argument doesn't hold water. Telegram founder Pavel Durov noted that his company refused to shut down "peacefully protesting channels," and Instagram is primarily being used to document protests -- Iran clearly doesn't want to reveal the extent of the demonstrations.
Congo orders cuts to internet and SMS to stifle protests
Authoritarian leaders are fond of severing communications in a bid to hold on to power, and that tradition sadly isn't going away. The Democratic Republic of Congo's government has ordered telecoms to cut internet and SMS access ahead of planned mass protests against President Joseph Kabila, whose administration has continuously delayed elections to replace him. Telecom minister Emery Okundji told Reuters that it was a response to "violence that is being prepared," but people aren't buying that argument. Officials had already banned demonstrations, and the country has history of cutting communications and blocking social network access in a bid to quash dissent.
Telegram suspends channel for encouraging violent Iran protests
Iran is currently engulfed in demonstrations: many are protesting the clerical leadership, corruption and increasing costs of living, while counter-protestors are trying to protect the regime. And Telegram finds itself caught in the middle. The chat service has suspended the Amadnews channel after it started encouraging subscribers to lob Molotov cocktails at police, breaking the company's policy against calls for violence. The move came after Iran telecoms minister Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi complained to company founder Pavel Durov, who said Telegram would have to block the channel if it was promoting violence as claimed.
Head to Verizon stores to protest the FCC's anti-net neutrality plans
It's highly unlikely that the FCC's latest plan to gut net neutrality won't go through, thanks to chairman Ajit Pai's record of consumer-unfriendly viewpoints and a Republican majority on the Federal Communications Commission. Still, advocacy groups and various websites have been pushing to preserve net neutrality for months now. The latest protest is looking to have people head to Verizon stores (Pai was a top lawyer for the telecommunications company) on December 7th to make their voices heard.
Internet wisdom clashes with political activism in downtown Phoenix
Don't feed the trolls. This advice is drilled into our heads: The most effective way to smother harassment on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, email or any other online outlet is to ignore it. Don't give it attention. Don't legitimize the taunts, the name-calling, the threats. Don't give them more reason to come after you. Don't feed the trolls. But that's online. In the real world, we're advised to do the opposite. We are compelled to stand up, speak out, and chant in the faces of people and ideas that would do us harm. When something unjust, tragic or deeply foreboding happens in America, the first instinct is to protest, make signs, march. Scream.
Protests supporting fired Google employee have been postponed
The multi-city Google protests organized by alt-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec have been called off for now. Posobiec began planning the protests after James Damore was fired by Google for circulating his ridiculous, nonsensical anti-diversity memo and the marches scheduled in multiple cities across the country were said to be demonstrations in support of free speech. "Google is a monopoly, and its abusing its power to silence dissent and manipulate election results. Their company YouTube is censoring and silencing dissenting voices by creating 'ghettos' for videos questioning the dominant narrative," said Posobiec on Medium. "The firing of James Damore for calling out Google's Echo Chamber of Ideology is only further proof of Google's insidious anti-free speech agenda."
GoFundMe shuts down campaigns for Charlottesville suspect
Crowdfunding platforms are taking a no-tolerance approach to campaigns raising money in support of James Fields, the man accused of driving a car into protesters at a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. GoFundMe has already removed "multiple" campaigns for Fields. Speaking to Reuters, strategic communications director Bobby Whithorne said: "Those campaigns did not raise any money and they were immediately removed." He added that GoFundMe will delete similar campaigns if more are created.
The high-tech war on Tibetan communication
Each year, March 10th in Tibet brings more police onto the streets, closer online censorship of terms like "Free Tibet" and "Dalai Lama" and a spate of cyberattacks. "Every March 10th, almost all major Tibetan organizations in Dharamsala are targeted with Distributed Denial of Service and other cyber attacks," said Tenzin Dalha, a researcher at the Tibet Policy Institute, part of the Central Tibetan Administration. Four years ago, that happened to the Voice of Tibet (VOT), a nonprofit media outlet run out of the Indian hill town of Dharamsala, bringing its website down for several days. The reason for the crackdown is that the date commemorates March 10th, 1959. On that day, rumors spread in the Tibetan capital Lhasa about the impending arrest of Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, by the Chinese, who had invaded the territory in 1950. Tibetans rallied to support their spiritual leader and the mass protests led to a violent crackdown. The Dalai Lama and his entourage escaped to India, where he and the Tibetan government-in-exile remain. When VOT started in 1996, it was one of the few channels of communication between Tibetans and their government-in-exile across the border, as all newspapers, television and other print materials were heavily censored. Using shortwave radio, it transmitted its news service across the border into Chinese-occupied Tibet, both in Tibetan and Mandarin Chinese.
Amazon, ACLU back net neutrality 'day of action' on July 12th
Many tech advocates and companies aren't happy that the FCC is planning to gut net neutrality, and they're determined to make their voices heard. The non-profit group has declared July 12th a "day of action" where companies and organizations will show support for a fair and competitive internet. It's not certain just what those protests will entail, but there are plenty of recognizable names involved. Amazon, Etsy, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Reddit and Vimeo are among the companies throwing their weight around, while groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Greenpeace are also showing solidarity.
Russia blocks protest app for refusing to share data
Back in 2013 when messaging apps seemed to be cropping up every day, Zello's walkie-talkie audio dispatches seemed a novel addition to a crowded niche. We didn't anticipate that the app would become a hit with protesters in Ukraine, Turkey, Hong Kong, Venezuela, and elsewhere. But after the simultaneous demonstrations around Russia in the last couple weeks, it seems the government is hitting the perpetrators where they coordinate: Yesterday, they banned the use of Zello in the country.
NYPD filmed hundreds of BLM and Occupy protests without approval
Police are frequently fond of monitoring protesters, and that includes cops in New York -- NYPD cameras have been a mainstay at large protests over the past several years. However, it's now clear that the NYPD has been skirting internal rules in the process. The Verge has obtained documents showing that the force's video team not only captured over 400 Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street protests between 2011 and 2016, but doesn't appear to have received authorizations or legal reviews.
