Google Employee Writes Memo About ‘The Burden of Being Black at Google’ – VICE

In a memo he sent before leaving the company, a former Google employee criticized the internet giant and its employees, noting that he regularly encountered racism during his experience as a Black worker at the company. The memo, obtained by Motherboard, is titled “The Weight of Silence,” and argues that Google is lacking in diversity,…

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‘Shooting,’ ‘Bomb,’ ‘Trump’: Advertisers Blacklist News Stories Online – WSJ

Like many advertisers, Fidelity Investments wants to avoid advertising online near controversial content. The Boston-based financial-services company has a lengthy blacklist of words it considers off-limits. If one of those words is in an article’s headline, Fidelity won’t place an ad there. Its list earlier this year, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, contained more…

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Uber CEO Says He Needs ‘Leadership Help’ After Video Shows Him Berating Driver – WSJ

Uber Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Travis Kalanick said he would seek leadership advice after a run of troubling news involving the company, capped Tuesday by an online video of him berating one of the ride-hailing service’s drivers. In a note to employees, Mr. Kalanick vowed to “grow up” and said he was “ashamed” of the…

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Silicon Valley Stumbles in World Beyond Software – WSJ

Silicon Valley’s push into the physical world “is going to be a much longer, slower process, especially in the next couple of chapters,” said Andrew McAfee, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who studies technology’s impact on society. That timeline isn’t typical for Google. Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched the search engine—then called BackRub—in…

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