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.
About half of Americans are right of center. What I'm saying is EVERY political stance google takes alienates a segment of their customers and employees. This includes stances which alienate left leaning people too.
Does anyone remember that the YouTube shooter was a PETA activist who was enraged over the demonetization and de-circulation of her videos?
I was never a Google fan for my own reasons (non-political, nor ever wanted a job there). I was pleased when some people I know started rejecting their products, but took a while to realize it was for political reasons alone. Which isn’t good reason in my book, as a software developer.
I told them, if Google was left wing, they wouldn’t be union busting. They’re a for-profit enterprise that at best has temporarily mutually aligned self interests. Google would assist in the Holocaust just as IBM did. The only way I could be convinced they’re left wing is if they did the left wing things that matter most: distribute money and power by embracing organized labor. Until then, all the gay rights flags in the world cost Google nothing. And just to be clear, I support leftist causes, just tire of corporate lip service. I don’t see what so many of my right wing friends see in Google being a “SJW” enterprise.
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.
I'm with you, I've yet to see actual evidence of political bias in a Google product. I.e. search, etc.
I've heard conservatives say they're uncomfortable working there because "everyone" is liberal, but they also live in San Francisco California, where "everyone" is liberal, so that's hardly Google's fault.
They shouldn't be surprised when Google gets slammed like a truck when the other side takes powers and decides they are the thorn in their side, just like Facebook is the thorn in the other parties side.
There was a reason companies traditionally pretended to be apolitical. (They never actually were, but at least acted like they were reacting to the social sphere instead of actively trying to shape it)
A lot people who are heavily right leaning in terms of policies does not like Google.
I even know a local Swedish podcaster that actively say DuckDuckGo instead of Google when relating to search. I completely understand this because I totally agree with the concept that Google has become politicized like a lot of companies unfortunately have become.
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.
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.
I pretty much agree. I big part of the reason why I personally like Google is because they, or at least a majority of their employees is actively progressive. Even if that’s just PR it’s still a nice counterweight to the mountains of companies who are just completely neutral or conservative culturally. At the same time, they and facebook facilitate the spread if right wing extremist ideology to some extent.
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.
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.
Well, okay you don't like their politics, but I was talking about money. It doesn't seem like Google is passing up any opportunities for making money. People might be tempted to think that they could be much more evil, sure, any company could, but you end up killing the golden goose. With google the goose is public trust, and they are clearly stretching whatever trust they have left. I wonder how many Google employees actually believe that ads are anything but an annoyance that nobody wants, or even that what they're doing is ethical.
Not really. Perception is everything. Democrats believe Google allowed Trump to be elected by valuing profit on platforms like YouTube rather than intervening in extremism. Republicans believe Google and it's largely liberal-leaning employees are censoring conservative voices via algorithm updates and deplatforming.
The truth is probably both are right in certain respects, and so Google finds itself now without many friends in the political sphere.
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