March on Google

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Updated Aug 16, 2017 at 12:22PM EDT by Don Caldwell.

Added Aug 15, 2017 at 03:38PM EDT by Don Caldwell.

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Overview

March on Google is a series of protests planned at various Google campuses around the United States. While originally scheduled to take place on August 19th, 2017, the event was postponed due to "Alt Left terrorist threats."

Background

On August 7th, 2017, Google fired engineer James Damore after an internal memo criticizing the company's diversity initiatives was leaked to the media, causing a backlash on social media. The following day, the MarchOnGoogle^[1] blog was launched, announcing plans to protest the corporation for "abusing its power to silence dissent and manipulate election results." Additionally, the site urged readers to post the hashtag "MarchOnGoogle with your best memes."

Developments

On August 12th, the alt-right rally "Unite the Right" was held in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which a car struck a group of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 other people. The following day, March on Google released a statement condemning "violence and silencing free speech as a means of promoting any political agenda" and that "any individual attempting to incite violence during the March on Google will not be part of our event."^[4] On August 14th, NY Mag^[3] published an article referring to the planned protests as "alt-right demonstrations." That day, the MarchOnGoogle blog published a "code of conduct" disavowing "White Nationalists, KKK, Antifa and NeoNazis," and explicitly denied being an "alt-right event" (shown below).

Code of Conduct for March on Google The March on Google condemns and disavows violence, hatred, and bigotry and all groups that espouse it such as White Nationalists, KKK, Antifa, and NeoNazis. . . We will not use messages that are designed to incite anger, hate, . We will respect the law and the police and cooperate in all . Any violation of these tenets will not be tolerated. or violence. matters is this an Alt-Right" event? The answer is no. This is an event for First Amendment supporters from across the country, from all backgrounds, ethnicity, and walks of life. We will not tolerate any incendiary actions, messages, remarks, or gestures that go against the respectful, “open basket" spirit of the event.

Postponement

On August 16th, 2017, March on Google announced that the event had been postponed due to "Alt Left terrorist threats," claiming that organizers had received death threats after "CNN and other mainstream media made false statements that our peaceful march was being organized by Nazi sympathizers."^[2]