As I understand it, this is the result of Google itself having quite a strong political opinions, at least recently. They profiled themselves as being leftist/progressive... their software just enforces this.
Google is a major media company now in that decisions they make about content influence political and social thought. That power leads to it becoming a target of politics and political activists.
Activists would flip their shit if Google started throwing their weight around in politics - "Is Google trying to buy your democracy?". And then the NIMBY crowd would swarm all over any proposed building.
Google routinely funds the campaigns of far right US politicians and pays lip service to social justice issues. The latter has historically been sufficient to appease the employees.
It's not weird if you consider that Google's primary motive is to make their platform attractive to advertisers and first-party rightsholders, and thus maximize revenue, rather than to spread social justice activism. It's always been the case that left-wing, LGBT and other non-traditionally mainstream content is considered a greater risk for advertisers than right-wing content.
Google is a trillion dollar company and donates to lots of political causes all over the spectrum. We're talking about the internal politics which are clearly left-wing.
Imagine saying this with a straight face when “Google and most SV companies” became literally the largest donors of neoliberal lobbying in the US during the last 10 years (also, Europe).
Your worldview skews very right if you say that. While I respect you and your opinion, the framing of Google being ‘far-left’ is absolutely out of touch with reality. Sure, Google management tries to have a position in the US culture war but in the end they still work heavily with law enforcement and military and work strongly to suppress worker’s rights.
Google doesn’t care about political views. Just what makes them the most money. Too much victimizing amongst some people. If Google was actually on the left or liberal why would they time me again do shady anti consumer/customer stuff with their ads and why did they collude with anti poaching? most people are apolitical or in the middle. Those people are who Google is appeasing. So Google is harsher with people to the extreme. Regardless of which side you’re on.
Just to be clear, your position is that Google should invest many millions into things that aren't business concerns at all for them. At a time when they get massive amounts of blowback for any attempt to be involved in local politics.
Although it's worth pointing out that Google should care very much about the "influence" of the parts of society it openly favors or [ insert antonym here, it's too early in the morning ].
Google has gained a lot of enemies for a variety of reasons, size and success in particular. It's going to need the favor and good will of as much of the nation as possible to survive the increasingly vicious attacks on it from competitors or those who simply like to attack the big (envy, or just big pockets).
There's long been a correct (I believe) perception that Google leans strongly to the Left, and in a country where "the Left" is outnumbered 2-1 by "the Right" I can't see that being wise. This action of theirs as of yesterday was gaining a lot of attention on the Right, and even agnostics like myself are not pleased (because I know churches do a lot of good, something very strongly reinforced this summer after a tornado ripped through the middle of my city, Joplin, Missouri).
I'm not saying Google should favor the Right, but at least it should not go out of its way to piss it off. It simply can't afford that sort of thing given its status today.
I think it's beyond Left and Right. Google, like most companies and individuals, is self interested. When something benefits Google, they'll pursue it, regardless of where it falls on the ideological spectrum.
Unions? That's bad for business owners, so Google is against. Diversity? That increases the number of workers you can have, so Google is in favor of it. Immigration? Google's in favor, for the same reason. More taxes on tech companies? Google's against, etc.
The question is: Do they keep their left wing bias active due to political alignment, financial incentives or a mix of both?
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