Google memo: How engineer's firing leaves awkward debate over free speech

Google memo: How engineer's firing leaves debate over free speech hanging

Internet giant Google has found itself in the middle of a spiky and growing debate over free speech after it fired an employee who sought to challenge how the company manages gender disparities and the discussion around diversity.

Many have rushed to denounce James Damore, the author of a so-called “anti-diversity manifesto” published on an internal Google platform, but the sentiments he expressed before he was fired are confronting as well as infuriating.

Social media has delivered its standard broad-brush moral arbitration on the matter, but the breadth of the discussion mirrors the