WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has offered a job to the now-former Google employee who wrote an “anti-diversity manifesto,” saying, “censorship is for losers.”
Assange made the offer via Twitter and included a link to a passage from his new book, “When Google Met WikiLeaks,” in the tweet.
1/ Censorship is for losers. @WikiLeaks is offering a job to fired Google engineer James Damore. https://t.co/tmrflE72p3
— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) August 8, 2017
Assange followed up his job offer with a series of tweets mocking Google for the decision.
Google: Any ideas on how we can decrease wages?
Engineer: The job is lonely & stressful. Maybe women don't like it
Google: You're fired— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) August 8, 2017
The employee’s dismissal followed an email over the weekend from Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai to the company’s employees, saying that the memo writer violated company policy, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday night.
The memo rocked the tech company after it was shared with fellow employees; it criticized Google’s efforts to increase diversity, arguing that the program discriminated against some employees.
“We strongly support the right of Googlers to express themselves, and much of what was in that memo is fair to debate, regardless of whether a vast majority of Googlers disagree with it,” Pichai said in his email to staff.
“However, portions of the memo violate our Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace,” he continued.
Pichai added that the code of conduct requires “each Googler to do their utmost to create a workplace culture that is free of harassment, intimidation, bias and unlawful discrimination.”
On Friday, Motherboard reported that the senior software engineers sent out a revision to the company’s diversity initiatives, instead calling for and encouraging “ideological diversity.” The 10-page document is the employee’s personal opinion, and was sent to a company mailing list before going “internally viral,” according to Motherboard’s source inside Google.
The employee also said that men were generally better at engineering jobs than women and that a liberal bias among executives and many employees makes it difficult to discuss the issue at Google.