From: jimruttshow8596
Zachary Vorhies, a former Google software engineer who worked at the company for eight years, has made claims about Google’s internal practices and culture after publicly releasing internal documents [00:00:20] [00:00:37]. Vorhies describes himself as the “Snowden of Google” due to his actions of collecting and releasing documents [00:01:39] [00:01:46].
Perceived Shift in Management and Culture
Vorhies observed a significant change in Google’s internal culture, particularly after the 2016 US Presidential election [00:06:00]. While he describes Google’s engineers as “really smart and so competent,” he noted that management seemed “selected more for loyalty than for competence” [00:05:28] [00:05:37]. He considers this a sign of “rot” setting into the organization when middle-level managers prioritize “kissing up” rather than protecting their teams [00:05:41] [00:05:50] [00:05:55].
Executive Reaction to 2016 Election
Following the 2016 election, Google executives “freaked out” [00:06:29]. During their weekly “TGIF” meeting, which oddly occurred on a Thursday, executives discussed the election results [00:06:33] [00:06:41] [00:06:48]. They attributed Trump’s election to alleged Russian hacking and a perceived prevalence of racism, hate, and misogyny in the general public [00:07:01] [00:07:06]. Vorhies noted that one executive even started crying on stage during this meeting [00:07:17] [00:07:20].
Internal Documents and “Awakening”
Around December 2016, Vorhies started noticing “odd papers” appearing on Google’s internal networks [00:07:51] [00:07:58]. One document, titled “Psychological Induced Stress as a Result of Algorithmic Discrimination,” discussed ways to alleviate user stress from algorithmic discrimination [00:08:08] [00:08:31]. It suggested providing users with “non-functional buttons and dials that would pretend to turn some of the censorship off” to restore a sense of control and reduce stress [00:08:39] [00:08:47]. The same paper also explored methods to simulate “crowding” to increase ad engagement [00:09:11] [00:09:18]. Vorhies found these findings “really evil” [00:09:54] and described this period as the beginning of his “awakening” to what Google was truly doing [00:09:35] [00:12:08].
He observed the company “ramping up the crazy” by defining and censoring “fake news” [00:10:12] [00:10:20] [00:10:36]. He claims that an internal document listed factual events as examples of fake news to be censored, which further prompted his investigation into Google’s motives [00:10:41] [00:11:07].
Machine Learning Fairness and User “Programming”
Vorhies also uncovered a new system called machine learning fairness (ML Fairness) [00:12:14]. He states that this system revises and biases search results, YouTube results, and news content, primarily targeting Google Search, YouTube, and News [00:12:48] [00:12:50] [00:12:56] [00:12:58]. According to Vorhies, Google’s internal documents defined algorithmic unfairness by example: if a search for CEOs predominantly showed males, even if that reflected “objective reality,” it could still be classified as “algorithmically unfair” and warrant “product intervention” [00:13:31] [00:13:39] [00:13:46] [00:13:49] [00:13:54].
He states that Google believes users are “programmed based upon the content that they’re interacting with” [00:14:27]. This means that news content aggregated and delivered to users “programs them,” influencing the content they then generate [00:14:34] [00:14:40]. Vorhies found it “really disturbing” that Google views people as “programmed” and “programmable units” which they intend to control using their mechanisms [00:14:53] [00:14:57] [00:15:13] [00:15:15].
Corporate Response to Whistleblowing
Upon discovering Vorhies was the leaker, Google attempted to stop him by initiating a “wellness check” [00:02:50] [00:02:56]. A wellness check is a police visit triggered by a tip suggesting someone might be unwell or intending to harm themselves, providing probable cause for police to investigate [00:03:16] [00:03:25] [00:03:28]. Vorhies did not want to speak to the police, escalating the situation [00:03:01] [00:03:03]. He believes Google used a “Deadman switch” he posted on Twitter—a common whistleblower tactic to deter assassination by ensuring information release if harm comes to them—as justification for the wellness check [00:04:23] [00:04:31] [00:04:45] [00:04:49] [00:04:52]. He characterized this as “bad faith” [00:04:55] and “moral scoundrel of the first water” [00:04:03].
Breaking Point
Vorhies’s personal “breaking point,” which solidified his decision to come forward regardless of personal danger, occurred when he witnessed Google allegedly deleting translation words from the Arabic-to-English dictionary [00:43:22] [00:43:25] [00:43:30]. This action, he claims, was intended to make a Trump tweet sound “crazy,” which was then used by The New York Times to try to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove the President of the United States [00:43:38] [00:43:40] [00:43:42] [00:43:44]. The specific word allegedly deleted was “Kaf F A,” which translates to “we will stand up” [00:43:53] [00:44:18] [00:44:21] [00:44:25]. He claims Google had to delete the word twice because its AI was smart enough to re-transliterate and find the word [00:45:08] [00:45:10] [00:45:12] [00:45:14] [00:45:16]. Vorhies views this as “treasonous behavior” and a “national security issue” [00:45:46] [00:45:54], solidifying his resolve to disclose the information [00:46:00] [00:46:02].
Advice for Potential Whistleblowers
Vorhies advises other Google employees who have evidence of misdeeds not to contact him directly, as he believes he is being monitored [00:46:51] [00:46:56] [00:46:58]. Instead, he suggests contacting Project Veritas, a “professional media organization” that he believes has the capability and integrity to protect whistleblowers’ identities and publish information discreetly [00:47:06] [00:47:10] [00:47:12] [00:47:14] [00:47:19] [00:47:22] [00:47:24]. He recommends using a VPN and a Tor browser for secure communication [00:48:32] [00:48:34] [00:48:37] [00:48:50] [00:48:52]. Vorhies hopes that his actions and interviews are “awakening” more Google employees to what he believes the company is doing [00:46:28] [00:46:32].