Google Cancelled Its Meeting About The "Anti-Diversity Memo" Because Employees Got Doxxed

Google CEO Sundar Pichai

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has cancelled a Thursday all-hands meeting originally organized to discuss diversity issues in the aftermath of an “anti-diversity manifesto” that recently went viral within Google, and the firing of James Damore, the Google employee who wrote the document.

According to Recode, which first reported the news, Google employees expressed concern about online harassment after their questions for Pichai and names appeared on right-wing sites in advance of the scheduled meeting.

A Google spokesperson told BuzzFeed News, “We’ll find a better way to help our employees connect and discuss these important issues further.”

Here is the full text of Pichai's memo to employees, which Google provided to BuzzFeed News:

“Dear Googlers,

“TL;DR Sorry for the late notice but we are going to cancel today’s Town Hall.

“We had hoped to have a frank, open discussion today as we always do to bring us together and move forward. But our Dory questions appeared externally this afternoon, and on some websites Googlers are now being named personally. Googlers are writing in, concerned about their safety and worried they may be “outed” publicly for asking a question in the Town Hall.

“In recognition of Googlers’ concerns, we need to step back and create a better set of conditions for us to have the discussion. So in the coming days we will find several forums to gather and engage with Googlers, where people can feel comfortable to speak freely. We’ll share details soon.

“Over the past two days, I have had the chance to meet with so many people here, and I have read each of your emails carefully. The vast majority of you are very supportive of our decision. A smaller percentage of you wish we would do more. And some are worried that you cannot speak out at work freely. All of your voices and opinions matter…and I want to hear them.

“In the meantime, let’s not forget what unites us as a company — our desire to build great products for everyone that make a big difference in their lives. I have been in a few product discussions today and felt energized by the important things we are working on. We can, and will continue, to come together to do the very best for the people we serve.

“Stay tuned.”

4chan's /pol/ message board, known for doxxing people who don't agree with its extremist views, tweeted the names and Twitter handles of Google employees to be doxxed:

Milo Yiannopoulos did the same:

View Video ›

facebook.com

And the right-wing site Vox Populi published the names and job titles of people allegedly arguing for Damore to be fired.

James Damore appeared to be staging a small protest nearby Google headquarters, per his Twitter account, @Fired4Truth.

Quelle: <a href="Google Cancelled Its Meeting About The "Anti-Diversity Memo" Because Employees Got Doxxed“>BuzzFeed

11 Questions You Probably Have About The Sarahah App, Including WTF Is It?

Have you seen people strange turquoise screenshots of an app called Sarahah?

It's suddenly everywhere, and we have thE SCOOP.

1. How does Sarahah work?

Everyone gets their own personal webpage, on which others can anonymously write messages to them. Ideally positive ones. Like a personal suggestions/compliments box at a restaurant, but you know, for people.

2. Can you reply to the messages?

No, but according to Sarahaha's website, the company is “studying this option.”

3. Do you need an account to write someone a message?

Nope, anyone can post on your page (unless you make it private).

4. Couldn’t this be used for bullying?

UM, DUH.

5. Seriously, right? An anonymous thing where you can write to a person? Sounds bad.

Well, it says “Leave a constructive message :)” at the top of the text box… But yeah.

6. Is it really anonymous? Like if I tell someone “I wanna nuzzle your hog” they won’t know it’s me?

Yes. A few weeks ago, a rumor spread that a hack could reveal who said what, but that was false. Of course, as with any app or website, nothing is ever 100% secure. Is it possible some hackers could steal all the metadata? Sure.

7. Who made this?

Zain al-Abidin Tawfiq, a developer from Saudi Arabia. He told Mashable that his idea was originally for workers to leave anonymous feedback for their bosses. But then he realized that it could be interesting for anyone to use.

9. How did this app blow up?

It only entered the App Store in early June, but quickly became popular in Saudi Arabia, then spread to Canada and the U.S., and now it’s blowing up in India — all through word of mouth. There’s a sort of built-in impulse to want to share these messages, so people have been on Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat. People love bragging! The anonymity makes sharing a compliment seem somehow less, well, obviously braggy. Like maybe you just want to thank whatever person out there said “your hair looks great!” but the only way to thank that person is to blast it out to all your followers.

10. Isn’t this just like CuriousCat or Formspring or YikYak?

CuriousCat and Formspring are more about asking questions – you could do this on Sarahah, but it’s implied that you’d give a statement not a question: “Your hair looks great!” instead of “what hairspray do you use?” And YikYak was more general.

But, yeah. Similar.

11. Should I actually make an account? Or is this just opening me up to bullying?

Look, I get it – you’re curious what people would say. Would someone profess their secret crush? Would you get compliments and validation and feel good? Or would someone say something small and petty like, “you really shouldn’t wear red, it’s not your color” that would tear you down and keep you up at night, fuming and questioning yourself.

The appeal is this tension. It’s Russian Roulette for your ego. Most likely you’ll get some pleasant comments, but only if you take the risk of getting that soul-crushing loaded chamber.

My opinion? Eh, do it. But more importantly: promise yourself you’ll only be nice to other people on there. You reap what you sow.

Quelle: <a href="11 Questions You Probably Have About The Sarahah App, Including WTF Is It?“>BuzzFeed

Snap’s Dancing Hot Dog Was The Highlight Of Its Earnings Call

Snapchat’s dancing hot dog was the star of its second quarter earnings call Thursday. The animated character, which you can bring to life with your phone’s camera while using the app, was deemed the “world’s first augmented reality superstar” by Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel in a call with analysts, where he also noted the hot dog has been viewed an astounding 1.5 billion times inside Snapchat.

For Snap, that was pretty much the end of the good news.

The rest of the report was fairly miserable. The company missed analyst revenue expectations, turning in $181.7 million vs. an expected $186.2 million. It missed on earning per share too, losing 16 cents vs. an expected loss of 14 cents. And it missed on user growth, reaching 173 million daily active users vs. an expected 175 million. After the call, its stock promptly dropped more than 16%.

Most notably, Snap’s user growth has slowed. As this tweet from Bloomberg’s Alex Barinka makes clear, Snap isn’t adding users at anywhere close to the same rate it was a year ago.

This slowing growth is a major problem for Snap as it takes on Facebook, a behemoth with 1.32 billion daily active users that dwarf Snap’s 173 million. Facebook has ruthlessly cloned Snap’s features over the course of the past year, which has coincided with the user growth slowdown. Instagram Stories, essentially a Snapchat clone, already has more than 250 million daily users.

In a move meant to reassure investors, Spiegel did say he and co-founder Bobby Murphy wouldn’t sell any Snap stock for the rest of the year. And Snap also released a new number stating that users under 25 spent more than 40 minutes daily inside the app, exceeding the 32 minutes a day users under 25 spend on Instagram. But these positive notes did little to salvage the day.

Still, people had fun on Twitter talking about the dancing hotdog.

Quelle: <a href="Snap’s Dancing Hot Dog Was The Highlight Of Its Earnings Call“>BuzzFeed