IRVINE, USA: Alphabet鈥檚 Google canceled on Thursday a company-wide meeting scheduled to discuss the controversy over a memo opposing diversity policies, the company said, citing concerns about personal attacks on employees from far-right commentators.
The company meeting was called to discuss the fallout of Google鈥檚 decision on Monday to fire an engineer, James Damore, after he posted a memo on Google鈥檚 internal network arguing that the company鈥檚 dearth of female engineers was because women were genetically less well-suited to software engineering than men.
Google said Damore violated its code of conduct and his actions advanced harmful gender stereotypes.
In an e-mail seen by Reuters on Thursday, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said some company employees were being named personally on websites in relation to the incident.
鈥淕ooglers are writing in, concerned about their safety and worried they may be 鈥榦uted鈥� publicly for asking a question in the Town Hall,鈥� Pichai wrote. 鈥淚n recognition of Googlers鈥� concerns, we need to step back and create a better set of conditions for us to have the discussion.鈥�
He said the company was exploring other forums for the discussion in the coming days.
Damore, who criticized in his memo 鈥淕oogle鈥檚 left bias鈥� and 鈥渋deological echo chamber,鈥� has since become a hero to some on the far right, who have attacked what they characterize as politically correct groupthink in Silicon Valley.
Damore claimed in a complaint filed on Monday to the National Labor Relations Board that he had been subject to 鈥渃oercive statements鈥� at Google.
Milo Yiannopoulos, an alt-right commentator, posted images on Facebook on Wednesday taken from social media profiles of several people who identified as working for Google. Some of the Google employees also identified as gay or supportive of diversity efforts.
鈥淟ooking at who works for Google,鈥� Yiannopoulos wrote on Facebook. 鈥淚t all makes sense now.鈥�