| Hi all, it's Eric. Ex-Googlers are in open revolt. The latest example came Thursday, when the company's former head of international relations wrote a withering Medium post about how the once-principled company has abandoned its commitment to not being evil. Disillusioned employees from Alphabet Inc.'s Google aren't that hard to find these days—it can seem like the company has been in a meltdown for the last two years—but Ross LaJeunesse's story is notable nonetheless. LaJeunesse is more senior than other Google employees who have publicly objected to the company's actions. His job was also focused directly on policy, rather than engineering. LaJeunesse's main criticism centers on Google's cozy relationship with China, an issue he worked on directly during his time at the company. He said product managers at the company were desperate to get the company's services into the country despite concerns that they'd be abetting a surveillance state. In interviews first with the Washington Post and then with Bloomberg, LaJeunesse said he'd pushed for human rights reviews on product decisions in an attempt to systemize ethical decision-making, but was rebuffed and sidelined. He left Google in April. "The company changed around me," LaJeunesse told me. "Government clearly has to step in." LaJeunesse's insider account of Google's policy debate is a reminder of the society-shaping questions going on behind closed doors at commercial technology companies. The human rights debates happening at Google are the sort that have usually been the provenance of democratically elected governments. At Google in particular, things are spilling into public view. Employees and executives are leaking. They're protesting. They're signing petitions and writing blog posts. LaJeunesse is saying that things at Google are as bad as you've been reading in the press for years. "We have an unwavering commitment to supporting human rights organizations and efforts," said Jenn Kaiser, a Google spokeswoman. The company says his departure was part of a broader reorganization of the policy team. It is worth mentioning that LaJeunesse has a big reason to speak out now: He's running for the U.S. Senate. He's competing in a Democratic primary in Maine that includes the Speaker of the state's House of Representatives, who has already been endorsed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. So, he needs all the attention he can get. LaJeunesse acknowledged in an interview that other people at Google are unlikely to follow him in speaking out publicly. "I think they are scared," he said. Critics of companies like Google say they keep dissenters quiet by shuffling them into high paying jobs with little influence, or by trying to get them to sign non-disparage clauses. "A lot of executives are choosing to put their heads down and make a good living," said LaJeunesse, who is also unusual in that he hasn't signed a non-disclosure agreement. But after years talking to Silicon Valley executives, I think they're more emboldened than ever to speak out against CEOs and founders with near-absolute control over their companies. Tech executives also seem more likely than their peers in other industries to feel like they had signed up for something more than business as usual. "There are plenty of corporations out there—maybe an oil corporation—that say 'we drill for oil and then we sell it. End of story,'" LaJeunesse said. "Google goes to great lengths to say to people in the public, 'Hey, we're the good guys. We do the right thing. You can trust us.'" People like LaJeunesse don't think Google deserves that trust anymore. —Eric Newcomer | 
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