Google Leaks summary

One morning in November 2016, when Zach Vorhies turned up for work at the Google offices in San Bruno, California, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The night before, Donald Trump had been elected US president – and it seemed like everyone at Google was losing their minds.

Some were crying and talking as if a close relative had died. Others had decided to take the entire day off.

To Vorhies, it seemed that these people lacked a fundamental grasp of civics. As a democracy, the United States has regular elections. You do your best to win them, but if you lose, you take it on the chin, and focus on doing a better job next time.

But that didn’t seem to be what was happening at Google.

The key message here is: Donald Trump’s election marked a political turning point for Google.

Everywhere he went, Vorhies heard employees talking about how unfair the election had been, and insisting that a resistance was needed to tackle Trump. It seemed like idle chatter at first – until employees were told to tune in to a weekly meeting, broadcast live from the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.

From the start, the atmosphere was eerie. Many Google employees wear a quirky company hat, a bright striped beanie with a little propeller on top. Normally it seems harmless – playful, even. But, surveying row upon row of employees – many wearing the same hat and all seemingly united in their political goals – the uniformity suddenly struck Vorhies as sinister.

In the broadcast meeting, Sergey Brin, cofounder of Google and CEO of its parent company Alphabet, described Trump’s election as “deeply offensive.” Kent Walker, the company’s Vice President for Global Affairs, blamed Trump’s victory on xenophobia and hatred. And Ruth Porat, the Chief Financial Officer, encouraged employees to console each other with hugs.

Later on, a Google employee asked what the company could do to tackle the misinformation and fake news that had supposedly led to Trump’s election. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, responded.

Vorhies found what Pichai said simultaneously vague and alarming. Pichai claimed this was an opportunity to make progress in machine learning and artificial intelligence. So far, those systems had been used to tackle things like bullying and hurtful comments. But once they were scaled up, machine learning and AI would be used to do much more.

And for the first time, Vorhies had an inkling of just what Google intended to do.