Google Program Manager says Company “Trying to Play God”
Google Technical Program Manager says the company is trying to play God in a newly released Project Veritas video. In the video, Ritesh Lakhkar discusses Google’s response to President Trump winning the election in 2016, how he believes his company is stifling free speech, and Google’s work with the Chinese Communist Party. The video was published on October 19th, and additional footage is scheduled to be released by Project Veritas on the 20th.
The YouTube video appears to be a compilation of two different occasions. Mr. Lakhakar is shown drinking what appears to be an alcoholic beverage as he eats dinner with the Veritas journalists. One of the videos includes Patrick Markan, Lead Staff Mechanical Engineer for Fitbit.
Discussing the topic of Google employees, Lakhar says, “If Trump wins, there will be riots. And if the left wins, they will be ecstatic.” He says that when President Trump won in 2016, employees were crying in the hallways of Google. He also said Google Human Resources organized group therapy sessions for employees. Employees were told to “take some time off and cool off, and we’ll regather again to figure out our strategy” after the “shocking event” of Trump’s election.
Lakhkar talks about his moral and ethical problems with what he calls Google’s “playing selective God” by picking and choosing what legal issues the company wants to enforce, depending on the political party of the target. He says that while misinformation that President Trump says will be deleted by the company, a democratic leader’s misinformation will be left as is. He says multiple times in the video he is concerned the company is “playing God” and not honoring the spirit of the First Amendment.
The Google employee seems most disturbed by his travels to China on behalf of the company. Of his travels, he says, “I can’t keep doing this. Go and teach Chinese people how to do American jobs and get surveilled on the way.” The Project Veritas journalist responds that he his scared the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state could come to America. Lakahar responds by saying that the conversation makes him wonder if he should vote for President Trump.
Describing his current working conditions at Google, Lakshar stated he felt stifled, even though he is working for one of the world’s most powerful companies. “On one side, you have this professional or unprofessional attitude. And on the other side, you have this ultra-leftist attitude. And your entire existence is like, questioned.”
“Here it’s like, your opinion matters more than your work,” Lakshar stated later in the video. He says that while the founders of Google are ultra-leftists, he is not sure if the Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, can be categorized that way.
