Google forbids political discussion on its internal employee forums

Google has issued new community rules barring employees from political discussions on internal message boards, and seeking to curb leaks that could “undermine trust” in the tech titan, amid swirling accusations of endemic bias.

The company released its updated guidelines on Friday, which remind employees to “be responsible,”“helpful” and “thoughtful” in all internal communications, but the new rules go further in discouraging talk of politics.

“While sharing information and ideas with colleagues helps build community, disrupting the workday to have a raging debate over politics or the latest news story does not,” the new guidelines say.

Though it’s natural for a company to expect its employees to actually work rather than do battle over this week’s political controversies, Google also appears to have its own public image in mind, urging workers to only speak about the firm “with good information,” warning that they could “undermine trust in our products.”

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Google bans free speech, in other words.