>> People who work at Google are choosing to aid in the suppression of human freedom.
The fact that there's a large number of employees who signed this document provides great evidence to contradict this claim.
It's kind of a blanket statement - I'm sure a bunch of the folks here on HN work at Google and are trying to do exactly the opposite.
Heck, some of the people who signed off on this document could be HN'ers!
You can sometimes change a corrupt system from the inside. It takes a lot of work and dedication and it certainly doesn't always work out - but it's a choice some people make. It certainly isn't mine! :)
I would also like to add that companies encouraging freedom of speech internally to a level that makes such protests possible are exceedingly rare.
In most companies employees have no freedom of speech unless unionized and not even then. And protesting against projects based on moral principles publicly is a sure way to get you fired.
Don't forget the Damore case. Regardless of people's views on content of his memo, this was a case of Google essentially baiting an employee to express their honest views on internal forum, and then firing them for not agreeing with the prescribed party line.
Agreed with all your points here. Clearly from this letter and the opposition other projects have received at Google there are those inside the company actively working to influence change.
It's definitely true that part of the reason Google+ dropped its real names policy was internal employee activism, alongside external pressure.
Unfortunately, that reversal and Facebook's more weakly enforced continuation of the same old type of policy both went mostly unnoticed. (Yes, I realize G+ is going away for consumer accounts in August. This change was years ago.)
The fact that there's a large number of employees who signed this document provides great evidence to contradict this claim.
It's kind of a blanket statement - I'm sure a bunch of the folks here on HN work at Google and are trying to do exactly the opposite.
Heck, some of the people who signed off on this document could be HN'ers!
You can sometimes change a corrupt system from the inside. It takes a lot of work and dedication and it certainly doesn't always work out - but it's a choice some people make. It certainly isn't mine! :)