Lawsuit: Google employees were fired for upholding “Don’t be evil” code

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Three former Google software engineers who sued the company yesterday claim they were fired for following Google’s famous “Don’t be evil” mantra.

“Google terminated each plaintiffs’ employment with it for adhering to the directive ‘Don’t be evil’ and calling out activity by Google that they each believed betrayed that directive,” according to the complaint filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court by Rebecca Rivers, Sophie Waldman, and Paul Duke. The ex-employees say Google falsely blamed them for a data leak after they circulated an internal petition.

The lawsuit notes that the Google Code of Conduct “that each full-time Google employee is required to sign as a condition of employment” specifically instructs them not to be evil. The ex-employees say they tried to uphold the “Don’t be evil” policy in August 2019 by circulating a petition “requesting that Google affirm that it would not collaborate with CBP [US Customs and Border Protection] or ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] with respect to enforcement of the Trump border control policies.”