Pride protests

San Francisco: In what seems like a saturated outburst against criticism, Google has warned its employees that Pride protests are against the companys code of conduct. According to internal memos sent to Google employees, anyone who chooses to walk the parade as a representative of Google and voice any protest would be considered in violation of the search engine giant's code of conduct. The discussion came out of a broader conversation among one of Google's LGBTQ groups called "Gayglers listserv" that petitioned San Francisco Pride to remove the the tech giant's float from the parade, The Verge reported on Monday. As part of the Pride parades, some of Google's workers planned to march with the company, some chose to demonstrate against YouTube's recent policy decisions with signs and t-shirts. Earlier this month, it was revealed that homophobic remarks were not considered to be in violation of YouTube's platform policies. After the LGBTQ community called out the company for its insensitive decisions, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki apologised, the report said. Wojcicki's apology comes in the wake of the company's failure to take more definitive action against conservative pundit Steven Crowder who made homophobic and racist comments about Vox publications writer Carlos Maza, calling him "lispy queer" and "gay Mexican". In response to Maza's complaints, the Google-owned video sharing platform admitted that despite the language used by Crowder was clearly hurtful, the videos did not violate their platform policies. In a recent letter to Google's LGBTQ employees, CEO Sundar Pichai said that he echoed Wojcicki's apology to the community, and vowed that the company would be taking "a hard look" at its harassment policies, the report added. For now it remains unclear how the search engine giant plans on punishing the employees who violate the company's code of conduct. Although employees are allowed to do so outside of company groups, some employees say it is too late for them to participate in official Pride parades in any other capacity. Earlier in March, US-based LGBTQ civil rights advocacy group -- Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation -- suspended Google from its 2019 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) for failing to remove a "conversation therapy" app from its PlayStore. The platform is looking to re-evaluate its harassment policies in the wake of the ongoing situation. IANS

Pride protests

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