- Google modifies Memegen, an internal discussion forum, after disputes over the war between Israel and Hamas.
- The thumbs down feature, which works similarly to Reddit, is removed, along with metrics.
- Google said the changes were in response to employee feedback, but some staff members are unhappy.
Google is changing an internal discussion board that employees used to share memes for more than a decade after employees engaged in heated discussions about the war in Gaza.
The changes, which Google confirmed to the New York Times, include removing the option to reject a post.
Since its founding in 2010, Memegen has been a place where employees can joke or complain about the company and its leaders. The meme generator has often been used to gauge employee sentiment, with Google employees using it to complain about their “corporate overlords” or mock the number of AI models released by the company.
The thumbs down feature works similarly to Reddit, with upvoted memes being pushed to the top and downvoted memes being dropped further down. For example, the post about “corporate lords” that followed the January layoffs got thousands of upvotes, The Verge reported.
In addition to removing thumbs downs, Google is also removing metrics indicating a post’s popularity.
Some employees fear the changes will ruin the discussion forum, a place where Googlers feel free to speak candidly about the company, with one employee receiving 8,000 likes on a post in which he said the purpose of the changes was to “kill Memegen,” according to the Times.
A Google spokesperson told the Times that the team is “experimenting with some common industry practices, similar to what other internal and external social platforms have done.”
The spokesperson also said the changes, which will take place this year, were in response to employee feedback, adding that thumbs down can make you feel bad.
The Times also reviewed an internal Google memo in which moderators said they believed collective downvotes were an “intimidation tactic.”
Google did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a source of controversy at Google for years.
In 2021, more than 250 Google employees called on the company to terminate its contracts with Israel after IDF forces carried out strikes in Gaza. In 2022, a Jewish Google employee resigned and said she and others were being retaliated against for their support of Palestine. Shortly after, more than a hundred Google employees gathered to protest Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing deal with Israel.
Google employees previously told The Times that tensions increased within the company after October 7, with some expressing concerns about anti-Semitic posts and others feeling unable to speak out in support of the Palestine or to criticize Israel.
Last month, Google fired an employee who organized a protest against Israel and Project Nimbus at a conference in New York. Google said the employee was fired because he disrupted a colleague’s presentation.
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