Conservatives call off protests over Google worker’s firing
Organizers targeting tech companies allege threats from left-wing ‘terrorist groups.’
Conservative protesters scuttled plans to gather outside Google’s offices this weekend, putting on hold an effort to take America’s culture wars directly to Silicon Valley.
The region was long insulated from political rancor, but now has become one of the most important ideological battlegrounds. That became clearer Wednesday, when protest organizers said that the news coverage surrounding their plans had led to threats from left-wing “terrorist groups.”
The now-postponed rallies were inspired by James Damore, the former Google engineer who was fired last week for posting a 10-page internal memo arguing that the lack of women in tech could be attributed to biological differences. His dismissal sparked an outcry from conservatives who say their opinions are being muzzled by liberal technology companies and led Damore to criticize his former company for promoting a “particularly intense echo chamber.”
Before the cancellation, event organizer Jack Posobiec, a conservative media figure who pushed the “Pizzagate” and Seth Rich conspiracy theories, had said that the March on Google “stands for free speech and the open discussion of ideas.”
Protests had been planned for Saturday at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., and other offices in locales including Venice, Atlanta and Seattle. Organizers say they plan to hold the events “in a few weeks’ time.”
A post on the march’s website said the event was postponed because of threats from unspecified “alt-left terrorist groups,” including one from someone threatening to drive a car into the march.
The Mountain View Police Department, Atlanta Police Department and the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., said Wednesday morning that they had not received any reports of such threats. Police departments in several other cities did not immediately respond to requests for comment; the FBI declined to comment.
The march organizers’ repeated use of “alt-left” — as well as placing blame for the postponement on leftleaning groups and news outlets — echoed rhetoric used by President Trump the day before.
On Tuesday, Trump used “alt-left” to describe antiracism counter-protesters who demonstrated against last weekend’s far-right rally in Charlottesville, and he faulted “both sides” for the violence there — a contention at odds with local police accounts.