Google Reportedly Tightens Internal Message Board Guidelines As More Employees Work From Home

Google is expanding a content moderation pilot it started in 2019 which barred employees from making statements that “insult, demean, or humiliate” other employees or business partners, discouraged employees from engaging in a “raging debate over politics or the latest news story” and set other community guidelines enforced by community managers, according to CNBC. 

Google now requires most of the owners of the company’s 75 discussion groups to go through moderation training and to be responsible for actively monitoring their channel to make sure the conversations are “inclusive” and aligned with the set purpose of the discussion board. 

There has been an increase in conversations flagged as harassment or discrimination on Google’s Q&A tool Dory and its internal meme generator and platform Memegen, the internal community management team said in a blog post, according to CNBC. 

The team said it is “uncomfortable to acknowledge that there has been content on our platforms that reinforce negative racial stereotypes, used harmful gendered phrases, or insulted Googlers based on their nationality.”

The internal community management team worked with employees to create the new moderation system and, in an internal email, according to CNBC, wrote they hope the initiative “strikes the right balance between keeping Google the open culture you expect while also putting in safeguards that keep our communities welcoming to all kinds of Googlers.”

Google did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request to comment.