Google restricts political discussions among employees on US election day

Google moderated and removed its employees' internal election-related conversations, CNBC has learned.

Ahead of Tuesday's U.S. election, Google executives warned employees to keep political opinions and statements away from a popular internal discussion forum called Memegen, according to correspondence seen by CNBC. Despite the warnings, employees continued to post election-related memes and criticize company policies on Tuesday.

Recent leadership guidance shows the company is taking expanded measures to curb internal political discussions. Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent a memo Monday reminding employees that people turn to the company's services for “quality and reliable information.” These include the company's Google Search, Google News and YouTube services.

“Whoever voters entrust with their trust, let us remember the role we play at work, through the products we make, and as a company: to be a trusted source of information for people of all backgrounds and faiths,” wrote Pichai. “We will and must maintain that.”

As one of the most important technology leaders in the US, Pichai himself has recently been drawn into the broader political discussions. Republican candidate Donald Trump claimed to have had several phone conversations with Pichai in recent weeks.

Google has been cracking down on internal conversations since 2019, when the company introduced a policy prohibiting employees from making statements that “insult, demean or humiliate” their colleagues. The rules also prevented employees from engaging in “a frenzied debate about politics or the latest news.”

This policy represented a significant cultural change for the company. Some employees pushed back against the restrictions, saying they were too broad, and in 2020 the company announced it was expanding its internal content moderation practices and requiring employees to more actively moderate internal discussions, as CNBC noted at the time .

As of 2021, Google has been dealing with internal disagreements regarding Project Nimbus, which is a $1.2 billion joint contract Amazon Providing cloud computing and AI services to the Israeli government and military. Google briefly closed an internal message board in March this year after employees posted comments about the company's Nimbus contract.

In a 2019 settlement, the U.S. Labor Department ordered Google to display a list of employee rights at its headquarters, including the right to speak about working conditions. This came after a former Google employee filed a complaint alleging that the company restricted free speech and fired him for expressing conservative views, which Google refuted.

The company declined to comment.

According to internal documents seen by CNBC, Google announced further updates to its Memegen policies in September, which included expanding the forum's limits on political discussions. The company also said it would ban employees from the platform if they violated policies three times, and Google said it would also use artificial intelligence technology to better detect violative content.

“Memegen no longer allows posting or sharing personal political opinions, including national politics/events, geopolitical content (e.g. international relations, military conflicts, economic actions, territorial disputes and other international matters unrelated to Google). related messages with or.” without comment,” says one document.

Political debates account for the “vast majority” of content removals, an expanded guidelines document said.

“Memegen is not a place for personal political opinions or expression,” reads a yellow banner that Google recently placed at the top of Memegen, according to images seen by CNBC.

One employee wrote that Google's internal community management team (ICMT) removed his meme because he believed it was not a violation. Many memes viewed by CNBC included messages such as “sending support” and “encouragement” to colleagues. Others mocked the extended corporate policy and the ICMT.

“This meme is a political statement, please report it to ICMT immediately,” one meme said. Another read: “Make Election Day a holiday to give ICMT a break.” Another meme just said “aaaaaaaa” overlaid with a black void.

Read Google CEO Sundar Pichai's full memo to employees below

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