Members of the alt-right are planning to protest Google for “silencing dissenting voices.”
The #MarchOnGoogle website says protests are planned at Google headquarters on August 19 in five cities: Mountain View, Calif., New York City, Washington D.C., Austin, and Boston.
“Google is a monopoly, and its abusing its power to silence dissent and manipulate election results,” the site’s manifesto reads. “Protesters may also be exercising their free speech rights, which Google does not respect, by protesting in front of the homes of Google’s executive team.”
Activist and protest march organizer Jack Posobiec told The Mercury News that Google’s recent firing of James Damore, who wrote a controversial diversity memo, was part of the impetus for the protest. “Google’s firing of James Damore is the flashpoint here,” he said. “An engineer fired for simply expressing an opinion that ran counter to Google’s politically-charged atmosphere of an “Ideological Echo Chamber” as (Damore) put it. Real Americans are sick of Big Tech’s crackdown on free speech and we’re taking to the streets.”
Google told Quartz that it is aware of the protest plans.