Google's Ideological Echo Chamber

This article is about the "Google memo" by James Damore about Google's diversity policies. For the "Google memo" about the Dragonfly project, see Google China § Dragonfly project. For another internal memo about Google, see Steve Yegge § Blog.

James Damore at Portland State University in 2018

"Google's Ideological Echo Chamber", commonly referred to as the Google memo, is an internal memo, dated July 2017, by US-based Google engineer James Damore (/dəˈmɔːr/) about Google's culture and diversity policies.[1] The memo and Google's subsequent firing of Damore in August 2017 became a subject of interest for the media. Damore's arguments received both praise and criticism from media outlets, scientists, academics and others.

The company fired Damore for violation of the company's code of conduct.[2] Damore filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, but later withdrew this complaint. A lawyer with the NLRB wrote that his firing did not violate Federal employment laws,[3][4][5][6] as most employees in the United States can be fired at the employer's discretion. After withdrawing this complaint, Damore filed a class action lawsuit, retaining the services of attorney Harmeet Dhillon,[7][8] alleging that Google was discriminating against conservatives, whites, Asians, and men.[9][10] Damore withdrew his claims in the lawsuit to pursue arbitration against Google.[11]

  1. ^ Damore, James (July 2017). "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber: How bias clouds our thinking about diversity and inclusion". includes abstract entitled "TL;DR", table of contents, diagrams, footnotes, citations, references. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  2. ^ Lewis, Paul (November 17, 2017). "'I see things differently': James Damore on his autism and the Google memo". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  3. ^ Eidelson, Josh (February 16, 2018). "Google's firing of engineer James Damore did not break labor law, NLRB lawyer concludes". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 17, 2018. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  4. ^ Conger, Kate (February 16, 2018). "Labor Board Found Google Was Within Its Rights to Fire James Damore". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on February 17, 2018. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  5. ^ Robertson, Adi (February 16, 2018). "Labor board says Google could fire James Damore for anti-diversity memo". The Verge. Archived from the original on February 17, 2018. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  6. ^ "Labor board says Google legally fired diversity memo writer". Engadget. February 17, 2018. Archived from the original on July 1, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
  7. ^ Horowitz, Julia (August 23, 2017). "Fired Google engineer James Damore hires prominent Republican lawyer". CNNMoney. Archived from the original on September 2, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  8. ^ Baron, Ethan (January 16, 2018). "Google foe James Damore's lawyer has deep history defending conservative views". The Mercury News. Archived from the original on September 2, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2018. Dhillon argues that Google broke the law by punishing Damore for his political views and his complaints about working conditions.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference vergeLawsuit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Guynn, Jessica (March 1, 2018). "Google accused in lawsuit of excluding white and Asian men in hiring to boost diversity". USA Today. Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  11. ^ Baron, Ethan (October 18, 2018). "Google's fired 'diversity memo' engineer exits lawsuit for arbitration". Archived from the original on April 6, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2019.