Search giant Google has apparently terminated the employment of software engineer Mike Wacker. Last month, the self-described Republican published an open letter about the “outrage mobs” that evidently run the show within the company. The only political views acceptable within Google are left or far left; expressing a dissenting view prompts complaints to HR., Wacker claimed. Wacker even hinted that going public could result in his firing.

Against this backdrop, Google separately lost a round in court when its motion to toss out a workplace discrimination class-action lawsuit failed.

“Last Wednesday, Mike Wacker was put on paid administrative leave and fired two days later…Wacker was the moderator of the Republicans listserv at Google and detailed in a Medium post his disputes with left-wing employees, several of which escalated into official complaints,” The Daily Caller explained in breaking the news about Mike Wacker’s firing.

Anyone who has worked in academia as an adjunct faculty member has faced the same SJW, self-censorship environment. That is, to make sure your contract is renewed for the next semester, you have be very circumspect about expressing any non-PC views — or those that could be interpreted that way — in the classroom or on campus generally.

See also: Trump White House Launches Tech Bias Website

Unexplained is why so many far-left zealots have gravitated to Big Tech or why it is necessary in the first place bring politics into companies that claim to manage neutral platforms.

Google’s Outrage Culture

In the aforementioned essay posted on Medium, Wacker wrote in part:

“Google has become a company where outrage mobs and witch hunts dominate its culture. These outrage mobs and witch hunts have become an existential threat not only to Google’s culture internally, but to Google’s trust and credibility externally…If left unchecked, these outrage mobs will hunt down any conservative, any Christian, and any independent free thinker at Google who does not bow down to their agenda…As I said before, once you control who belongs at Google, you can control what content belongs on Google.”

This development surfaces in the same week that Google-owned YouTube decided to de-monetize conservative comedian Steven Crowder’s Louder with Crowder channel.

Under vague terms of service violations, Big Tech in the form of Google, Twitter, Facebook and others have has suspended, shadow banned, throttled, or de-platformed several peaceful yet provocative right-wing content producers and Trump supporters (wholly unrelated to fringe actors). Payment processors are also getting into the de-platforming game.

No matter how abusive, threatening, or vulgar leftists behave online, they hardly ever get subjected to any form of disciplinary action.

In the meantime, the feds have begun probing Google for antitrust violations, and the Trump White House is gathering information on social media censorship.

So-Called Free Market Is Denying Free Speech

What some called “Conservative Inc.” — particularly those compromised by big checks from Silicon Valley — claim that Big Tech can do whatever it wants in a capitalist economy. Writing in Human Events, Walter Smith, among others, begs to differ: “…’free market’ absolutists refuse to acknowledge the powerful forces at work that deny free speech-focused social media competitors access to a level playing field.”

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act currently shields Big Tech networks from legal liability on the grounds that they are platforms rather publishers. Many have called for the repeal of that provision. Others have advocated regulating the platforms along the lines of public utility oversight. Plus, rampant privacy violations by these organizations have prompted legal inquiries.

Last year, in reference to Donald Trump’s victory, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson predicted that “Silicon Valley is never going to let 2016 happen again.” 

Google in Court

In a related development noted above, free-speech attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon announced today that a California court has green-lighted a lawsuit originally filed on behalf of fired Google engineer James Damore and others. Google fired Damore in 2017 after he authored a 10-page memo that challenged the company’s diversity policies and politically correct atmosphere. 

“This ruling is a significant step forward for all California workers, and sends notice to Silicon Valley that discrimination of any kind will not be escape legal scrutiny,” she told the Mercury News.

Does Mike Wacker also have a potential cause of action?

Check back for updates.

[Featured image credit: Hebi B./Pixabay]