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Google “Machine Learning Fairness” Whistleblower Goes Public, says: “burden lifted off of my soul”


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Aug 14 2019

Aug. 14 2019

A Google insider who anonymously leaked internal documents to Project Veritas made the decision to go public in an on-the-record video interview. The insider, Zachary Vorhies, decided to go public after receiving a letter from Google, and after he says Google allegedly called the police to perform a "wellness check" on him. See the documents Zach leaked to Project Veritas in June: https://youtu.be/csP4z8dR6X0

 

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The internal Google documents are available here.

(San Francisco) A Google insider who anonymously leaked internal documents to Project Veritas made the decision to go public in an on-the-record video interview. The insider, Zachary Vorhies, decided to go public after receiving a letter from Google, and after he says Google allegedly called the police to perform a “wellness check” on him.

Along with the interview, Vorhies asked Project Veritas to publish more of the internal Google documents he had previously leaked. Said Vorhies:

(Snip)

In June of 2019, Project Veritas published internal Google documents revealing “algorithmic unfairness.” Vorhies told Project Veritas these were documents that were widely available to full-time Google employees:

Quote

“These documents were available to every single employee within the company that was full-time. And so as a fulltime employee at the company, I just searched for some keywords and these documents started to pop up. And so once I started finding one document and started finding keywords for other documents and I would enter that in and continue this cycle until I had a treasure trove and archive of documents that clearly spelled out the system, what they’re attempting to do in very clear language.” 

(Snip)

Intimidation 

Shortly after the report including the “algorithmic unfairness” documents was published, Vorhies received a letter from Google containing several “demands.” Vorhies told Project Veritas that he complied with Google’s demands, which included a request for any internal Google documents he may have personally retained. Vorhies also said he sent those documents to the Department of Justice Antitrust Division.

After having been identified by an anonymous account (which Vorhies believes belongs to a Google employee,) on social media as a “leaker,” Vorhies was approached by law enforcement at his residence in California. According to Vorhies, San Francisco police received a call from Google which prompted a “wellness check.”

Vorhies described the incident to Project Veritas:

Quote

they got inside the gate, the police, and they started banging on my door… And so the police decided that they were going to call in additional forces. They called in the FBI, they called in the SWAT team. And they called in a bomb squad.”

“[T]his is a large way in which [Google tries to] intimidate their employees that go rogue on the company…”

 

Quote

Partial video of the incident was provided to Project Veritas. San Francisco police confirmed to Project Veritas that they did receive a “mental health call,” and responded to Vorhies’ address that day.

(Snip)

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Aug. 14 2019

You may have seen James O’Keefe’s journalism exposing Planned Parenthood, ACORN, NPR, and voter fraud. Today he releases new footage from a Google whistleblower regarding the suppression of conservative voices.

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Meanwhile over at Right Wing Watch

James O’Keefe Can’t Stop Owning Himself

Jared Holt

August 14, 2019 3:21 pm

James O’Keefe’s right-wing political shop Project Veritas published a video today in which O’Keefe interviewed a “whistleblower” who alleged that Google systemically discriminated against conservatives in its search products. But O’Keefe’s rollout had a glaring oversight: the Google whistleblower is an ardent conspiracy theorist, or rather—in the words of his Twitter handle—a “perpetual maniac.”

(Snip)

Project Veritas’ latest attempt at validating the unfounded right-wing narratives that allege major tech companies program their products to disfavor conservatives resulted in yet another humiliating self-own for O’Keefe, whose career has been punctuated with embarrassments. Despite its failures, the media produced by O’Keefe’s shop has been cited in Congress by the likes of Sen. Ted Cruz to justify conservative agenda items.

Project Veritas and O’Keefe possess a trait that is an effective superpower in conservative media: shamelessness. But despite this, conservatives continue to cut Project Veritas checks and Republicans on Capitol Hill still wheel out the organization’s shoddy work to validate their talking points.

(Snip)

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What Others Are Saying About the New Google Insider’s Revelations

The documents' authenticity is not in dispute. What to do about them is another matter

Denyse O'Leary

August 15, 2019

Yesterday, Project Veritas released hundreds of internal Google documents leaked by Zachary Vorhies, which included protocols for manipulating search engines and news, often with political goals.

So what have people been saying about that?

Well, some groups have discovered that they are on Google’s
blacklist:

(Snip)

One online medium attacks the leaker:

What O’Keefe’s video leaves out, though, is that his much-hyped insider is not as credible as he claims. On social media, Vorhies is an avid promoter of anti-Semitic accusations that banks, the media, and the United States government are controlled by “Zionists.” He’s also pushed conspiracy theories like QAnon, Pizzagate, and the discredited claim that vaccines cause autism.

Will Sommer, “James O’Keefe’s Google ‘Whistleblower’ Loves QAnon, Accused ‘Zionists’ of Running the Government” at The Daily Beast

Responding for Project Veritas, James O’Keefe acknowledges his source’s weaknesses but says that the real story is the substance of the official Google documents:

Not every source is a perfect angel. Good journalists know this is true. But don’t take my word for it. Read James Dygert’s book on investigative reporting: Job is not to determine source’s motive or fret over his imperfect rep, but to check accuracy of the information provided. – James O’Keefe III

(Snip)

More recent news on this thread: Whistleblower says Google called police to do a “wellness check” on him. He can be seen doing a perp walk on the sidewalk in front of his house on the video; some portions transcribed here. In the documents Vorhies unearthed, Google seemed to be “intending to scope the information landscape so that they could create their own version of what was objectively true.”

Is Google a cult? Or does it just act that way? Project Veritas announces that a new rebel Googler has sent nearly 1000 documents on algorithm bias to the DOJ. While we prepare a news story on Zach Vorhies’ revelations, it may be worth asking why one of the world’s largest companies has developed what appears to be the atmosphere of a political cult.

And

Google engineer reveals search engine bias. He found Google pretty neutral in 2014; the bias started with the US 2016 election (Gregory Coppola)

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