Google has been moderating and removing employees’ internal election-related conversations, CNBC has learned.
Ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. elections, Google executives warned employees to keep political opinions and statements away from a popular internal discussion forum called Memegen, according to correspondence viewed by CNBC. Despite the warnings, employees continued posting memes related to the election and criticizing the company’s policies on Tuesday.
The most recent leadership guidance shows the company is taking expanded action to temper internal political discussions. Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday sent a memo reminding employees that people turn to the company’s services for “high-quality and reliable information.” That includes through the company’s Google Search, Google News and YouTube services.
“Whomever the voters entrust, let’s remember the role we play at work, through the products we build and as a business: to be a trusted source of information to people of every background and belief,” Pichai wrote. “We will and must maintain that.”
As one of the most important tech leaders in the U.S., Pichai himself has been pulled into the broader political discussions of late. Republican nominee Donald Trump claimed to have multiple phone calls with Pichai in recent weeks.
Google has been cracking down on internal conversations since 2019 when the company introduced a policy barring employees from making statements that “insult, demean, or humiliate” their colleagues. The rules also discouraged employees from engaging in a “raging debate over politics or the latest news story.”
That policy signaled a significant culture shift for the company. Some employees pushed back against the restrictions, saying they were too broad, and in 2020, the company said it was expanding its internal content moderation practices, requiring employees to more actively moderate internal discussions, CNBC found at the time.
Since 2021, Google has dealt with internal dissent regarding Project Nimbus, which is a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud computing and AI services. Google briefly shut down an internal message board this March after employees posted comments about the company’s Nimbus contract.
In a 2019 settlement, the U.S. National Labor Board ordered Google to post a list of employee rights at its headquarters that included the right to discuss workplace conditions. That came after a former Google employee filed a complaint alleging that the company restricted free speech and fired him for expressing conservative views, which Google refuted.
The company declined to comment.
Banning political discussions
Google announced more updates to its Memegen guidelines in September that included broadening the forum’s restrictions against political discussions, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC. The company also said it would ban employees from the platform if they violate policies three times, and Google said that it would also also use artificial intelligence technology to better detect violative content.
“Memegen will no longer allow posting of personal political opinions, including national policy/events, geopolitical content (eg, international relations, military conflicts, economic actions, territorial disputes, and other international affairs unrelated to Google), or sharing related news with or without commentary,” one document said.
Political debates have driven the “vast majority” of content removals, one document of the expanded policies said.
“Memegen isn’t a place for personal political opinions or statements,” reads a yellow banner that Google recently added at the top of Memegen, according to images viewed by CNBC.
One employee wrote that Google’s internal community management team, or ICMT, took down their meme, which they didn’t feel was violative. Many memes viewed by CNBC included messages such as “sending support” and “encouragement” to fellow employees. Others poked fun at the company’s expanded policy and the ICMT.
“This meme is a political statement please report to ICMT immediately,” one meme said. Another read: “Make Election Day a holiday to give ICMT a break.” Another meme just said “aaaaaaaa” overlaid on a black void.
Read Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s full memo to employees below
Hi Googlers, Tomorrow is election day here and many in the U.S. will be heading to the polls to vote for everything from school board to judges to the Congress and President.
Teams across Google and YouTube have been working hard to make sure our platforms provide voters with high-quality and reliable information, just as we’ve done for so many other elections around the world — in fact, dozens of countries have held major, hotly contested elections this year, from France to India to the UK to Mexico and many more, with well over a billion people casting votes in 2024.
We should be proud of our work, and also of our teams’ efforts to keep campaigns secure, to deliver accurate information on where and how to vote, and to provide digital advertising solutions to campaigns. Thanks to everyone working around the clock on these efforts throughout the campaign season and as votes are tallied.
As with other elections, the outcome will be a major topic of conversation in living rooms and other places around the world. And of course, the outcome will have important consequences. Whomever the voters entrust, let’s remember the role we play at work, through the products we build and as a business: to be a trusted source of information to people of every background and belief. We will and must maintain that. In that spirit, it’s important that everyone continue to follow our Community Guidelines and Personal Political Activity Policy.
Beyond election day, our work to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful will continue. Al has given us a profound opportunity to make progress on that mission, build great products and partnerships, drive innovation, and make significant contributions to national and local economies. Our company is at its best when we’re focused on that.
Microsoft‘s Outlook email service malfunctioned for several hours Wednesday and Thursday, prompting some people to post on social media about the inability to reach their virtual mailboxes.
The issue began at 6:20 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, according to a dashboard the software company maintains. It affected Outlook.com as well as Outlook mobile apps and desktop programs.
At 12:21 ET the Microsoft 365 Status account posted that it was rolling out a fix.
“Our configuration changes have effectively resolved impact in targeted infrastructure. We’re now deploying the changes worldwide to resolve impact for all users,” Microsoft said in an X post on Thursday afternoon.
The company’s status page said “most impacted users will experience relief within the next two hours,” and that it was continuing to monitor the service.
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On social media, some people reported that Outlook was functioning properly after hours of users posting about problems.
With hundreds of millions of active users, Outlook is important, although Apple and Google‘s email clients are more popular, according to data from analytics company Litmus.
A worker prepares orders at an Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center.
Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Daphnee Poteau, a Haitian who came to the U.S in 2023, began working for Amazon last year at a returns center in Indianapolis. While packing up boxes, she met her husband Kristopher Vincent, who’s been at the site, known as IND8, since 2013.
Last month, Poteau was contacted by the Department of Homeland Security, after the Trump administrationcanceled humanitarian immigration programs that allowed participants to live and work legally in the U.S. for two years while applying for permanent status.
A notice from DHS told Poteau that her parole program was being terminated. Her last day at Amazon was June 28. She’s among a group of warehouse workers whose jobs have been eliminated since DHS revoked the parole program that was created during the Biden administration.
While Poteau tries to secure a spousal visa, her future in the U.S. is uncertain. She and Vincent, who’s from Indiana, said they’re concerned about being able to afford rent and costly immigration fees.
“We’re taking it one day at a time, but it does leave me stressed that they’re going to come and try to get her, even though she does have an asylum case pending in court,” Vincent said in an interview.
“Everything we’ve seen in the news shows they flagrantly no longer care what the laws say,” Vincent said.
Poteau and her terminated co-workers had been protected under programs that provided Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans with temporary legal status in the U.S. Many of the employees at IND8 are Haitian, a large enough contingent that some of the morning staff meetings are translated into Creole, Vincent said.
Daphnee Poteau met her husband Kristopher Vincent while working at an Amazon warehouse in Indianapolis.
Kristopher Vincent
Amazon last month began asking staffers who came to the U.S. under the Biden-era program to provide updated work permits within a certain timeframe or they would be put on unpaid leave, according to documents viewed by CNBC.
Several workers who spoke to CNBC said they were dismissed by Amazon in late June after they couldn’t get new work authorizations.
Amazon declined to say how many employees were let go following the changes in immigration policy, but spokesperson Richard Rocha said the company prepared for potential staffing impacts due to changes in work authorization programs, and made adjustments to be in compliance with the law.
“We’re supporting employees impacted by the government’s recent changes in immigration policy,” Rocha said in a statement. “Over the past few months, we’ve been in regular communication with these employees about the changes and are ensuring they’re aware of all available resources.”
The company has provided impacted employees with information about where to find free or low-cost legal services, access to counseling support and other resources, Rocha said.
A DHS spokesperson pointed to the agency’s announcement terminating the humanitarian parole program.
Fired before Prime Day
As part of the Trump administration’s broad immigration crackdown, DHS has eliminated not just the humanitarian parole program. It’s also ended separate programs that provided temporary protected status to Venezuelans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Hondurans seeking refuge from their native countries, which have suffered from armed conflict and humanitarian crises. Last week, a federal judge ruled the Trump administration can’t revoke the temporary protected status, or TPS, of Haitian migrants. The White House said it will appeal the ruling.
Amazon is far from alone. Other companies including Walmart and Disney have been forced to fire employees or put them on leave in order to comply with shifting federal policies.
Among private employers in the U.S., only Walmart has a bigger workforce than Amazon. Most of the e-commerce giant’s 1.56 million employees globally are concentrated in its warehouse operations.
The terminations started just as Amazon was gearing up for its annual Prime Day discount blitz, which began on Tuesday and lasts four days. The event is typically one of the busiest periods of the year for Amazon warehouse and delivery employees, alongside the holiday shopping season.
Amazon has counted on immigrants to meet a big part of its staffing needs. In 2022, the company set a goal to hire 5,000 refugees and other forcibly displaced individuals by the end of 2024.
While Trump’s policies create a challenge for large employers like Amazon, the real devastation is being felt by the immigrant workers. Those who now find themselves unemployed and lacking documentation are at a higher risk of being targeted for deportation unless they can secure an alternative form of legal status.
Christopher Lubin, an Amazon warehouse worker in Delaware, lost his job at the company on June 27, a day before Poteau received her notice.
“We have done everything legally in this country,” said Lubin, 24, who is also from Haiti. “We haven’t committed fraud. We go to school, we work, and we pay taxes.”
DHS said it was revoking protections for Haitian nationals after a review by Secretary Kristi Noem determined “country conditions have improved to the point where Haitians can return home in safety.”
The U.S. granted TPS for Haitian nationals following a catastrophic earthquake in 2008 that destroyed much of the nation’s infrastructure. In 2024, the TPS designation was extended through February 2026, as the country faced “rapidly deteriorating security, human rights and humanitarian” conditions, according to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Armed gangs control the majority of Port-au-Prince and violence has spread beyond the capital in recent months. About 10 individuals from Haiti lost their jobs at an Amazon warehouse in Spokane, Washington, after DHS revoked the TPS program, said Katia Jasmin, executive director of Creole Resources, which provides support to Haitian immigrants in the region.
Serge, who asked to have his full name withheld out of fear of being targeted for deportation, came to the U.S. from Haiti nearly two years ago and secured a job at the Spokane warehouse as a packer. The situation in Haiti was dire when he left and it remains unsafe today, Serge said.
“I witnessed violence and trauma, including the loss of family members who were killed,” Serge said. “Others were displaced from their homes and are now homeless. I genuinely feared for my life.”
In desperation, he said he sought a safer future and secured a sponsor that allowed him to come to the U.S. legally. It’s “unjust” that Haitians are now being ordered to return to their home country when it’s plagued with violence, Serge said.
“We’re not just recipients of economic support,” he said. “We’re also contributors who help drive the economy.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends an opening ceremony for Tesla China-made Model Y program in Shanghai, China, on Jan. 7, 2020.
Aly Song | Reuters
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company is expanding its robotaxi service area and bringing xAI’s Grok to vehicles as it rolled out a new iteration of the artificial intelligence chatbot.
Shares gained about 3%.
Musk said on X that Grok, his AI chatbot that praised Adolf Hitler and posted a barrage of antisemitic comments recently, will be available in Tesla vehicles “next week at the latest.”
xAI officially launched the Grok 4 update overnight as the company continued to face backlash for the vitriol written by the chatbot.
In response to a user post on his social media platform X, Musk said the company is expanding its Austin, Texas robotaxi service area this weekend. He also said Tesla is awaiting regulatory approval for a launch in the Bay Area “probably in a month or two.”
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The expansion of robotaxi and Grok integration comes at a fraught time for Musk and his empire.
Tesla set its annual shareholder meeting for Nov. 6, a Thursday filing showed. A group of investors recently called on the electric vehicle company to schedule the meeting.
Its last shareholder meeting was in June 2024, as Musk established himself as a major backer of President Donald Trump‘s reelection campaign. Musk later led the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.
After stepping down from DOGE at the end of May, Musk has openly feuded with Trump on social media over the major tax bill, with the president suggesting the government look at cutting contracts for Musk’s companies.
Shares have tanked from their post-election high over investor concerns that the public fight could hamper Tesla. Slowing sales and rising competition also stifled some investor appetite.
Tesla shares fell Monday, with the company losing $68 billion in value after Musk continued to blast Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and said he was establishing his own political party, the “America Party.”
The world’s richest man suffered another blow Wednesday when Linda Yaccarino stepped down as CEO of his social media platform X, leaving the role after a turbulent two years for the company.