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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday offered a job to the Google employee who was fired for writing an anti-diversity memo a job that went viral inside the company and infuriated thousands of employees.
Julian Assange, who is currently in the Ecuadorian Embassy, tweeted multiple times in support of James Damore, the engineer who wrote the memo, the Telegraph reported.
He said, “Censorship is for losers. @WikiLeaks is offering a job to fired Google engineer James Damore.”
“Women & men deserve respect. That includes not firing them for politely expressing ideas but rather arguing back,” Assange tweeted.
He had previously tweeted, “Identity politics 2.0 wars come to Google. Oh no. But mass spying is fine since its equal opportunity predation.”
Google CEO Sunder Pichai has reportedly cut his vacation short to deal with the crisis over the anti-diversity memo.
The 10-page memo claimed that “the representation gap between men and women in software engineering persists because of biological differences between the two sexes”.
According to a report in CNN Money, Pichai condemned portions of the controversial memo that argued that women are not “biologically fit” for tech roles.
Pichai said parts of the 3,300-word manifesto crossed the line by “advancing harmful gender stereotypes” in the workplace.
“Our job is to build great products for users that make a difference in their lives,” he wrote in an email.
“To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK. Clearly there’s a lot more to discuss as a group, including how we create a more inclusive environment for all,” Pichai added.
The Google CEO also said that there are employees who are questioning whether they can safely express their opinions, especially ones that might fall into a minority.
“They too feel under threat and that’s not OK. People must feel free to express dissent,” he wrote.
Google’s vice President of diversity, Danielle Brown, sent a memo in response to the furore over the weekend, saying the engineer’s essay “advanced incorrect assumptions about gender”.
The document was initially posted on the company’s internal forum.
Critics reacted angrily to its argument that the lack of women in tech companies was down to genetic factors, saying it was evidence of Silicon Valley’s hostility to women and minorities.
