Key Messages
Who Is Zach Vorhies And What Does He Alleg About Google?
Zach Vorhies was a former Google employee with insider knowledge about the politics of one of the biggest tech companies in the world.
For years, he had been watching as Google tried to make secret maneuvers and influence politics.
But when Donald Trump was elected president, Vorhies knew it was time to speak out.
He decided to become a whistleblower and make his voice heard in this David and Goliath-style battle.
He released documents highlighting Google’s attempts at influencing politics and its response to the election of Donald Trump, including its obsession with the “covfefe” tweet.
Unfortunately, coming forward as a whistleblower wasn’t easy for Vorhies.
He suddenly found himself being visited by heavily armed police officers who wanted to collect evidence from him—a reminder of how powerful Google truly is.
Through his story, we get a glimpse behind the curtain into what really goes on inside one of Silicon Valley’s most influential players.
Donald Trump’S Election Revealed Google’S Plan To Use Machine Learning And Artificial Intelligence To Fight Fake News
When Donald Trump was elected President of the United States in November 2016, it marked a political turning point for the tech giant Google.
Employees at the various offices went into shock and many seemed to lack an understanding of basic civics; that even if we lose an election, all is not lost and we can come back stronger next time.
Instead, it seemed that people were talking as if a family member had just died, some taking the entire day off work.
At the weekly headquarters broadcast meeting afterwards, Sergey Brin, cofounder and CEO of Alphabet (Google’s parent company), described Trump’s election as “deeply offensive.” Kent Walker, Vice President for Global Affairs blamed the result on xenophobia and hatred, while Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat suggested emotional support for employees with hugs.
Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO meanwhile cryptically pledged to make progress in machine learning and artificial intelligence — previously used to curb issues like bullying — potentially opening them up to far broader applications once scaled up.
All this caused Zach Vorhies to take notice; something odd was going on at Google and Donald Trump’s election had set it in motion.
It left him horrified but also determined to uncover exactly what they were doing – no matter what the consequences.
Vorhies Uncovers Google’s Alleged Censorship Campaign In The Name Of Fighting Fake News
Former Google engineer, Zach Vorhies, saw a hidden agenda in the tech giant’s crusade against fake news.
He noticed that Google was intentionally picking stories that were either pro-Trump or anti-Hillary Clinton and labeling them as “fake news” without any legitimate evidence.
This obvious pattern of bias led him to believe that Google was trying to limit what people could read by putting a spin on the facts; a form of censorship on open discussion and exchange of ideas in society.
Vorhies began researching further into this matter and found internal documents at Google which provided very clear information about their intent.
These documents identified five examples of fake news, many of which were critical of Clinton, but only one which supported Trump.
Some articles labeled as ‘fake’ didn’t necessarily seem so upon review.
Ultimately, Vorhies concluded that an automated system for distinguishing between real and fake news would be necessary for Google’s anti-fake-news campaign to work – a troubling thought which has far reaching implications when it comes to the impact it can have on our right to free speech.
Google’s Machine Learning Fairness Plan: A Simpler Way To Exercise Ideological Control?
Google’s plan to reshape the internet in an effort to create a more “fair” experience for its users is something that former Google engineer Zach Vorhies uncovered during the early months of the Trump presidency.
At the core of this plan was a system based on machine learning and something they called “machine learning fairness.”
This machine learning-based system involved algorithms being fed data and then making decisions on its own basis, while avoiding biases and prejudices which can occur with real-world scenarios.
For example, when you search “CEOs” and only male images populate, this could be seen as prejudicial and categorized under algorithmic unfairness.
This means more than simply reflecting the regulations – instead, fair results should also involve working to dismantle harmful gender stereotypes about leadership roles in society.
To further ensure such fairness, Google planned for AI to work hand in hand with human evaluators who would measure websites’ trustworthiness and rate them accordingly – according to their opinion rather than just facts – meaning sites who have messages Google disagrees with will see themselves pushed down rankings or lose their potential advertising revenue streams.
Through his leaks, Vorhies could see how powerful this practice could be if put into motion – having potentially major long lasting repercussions for American politics as a result.
Google’S Involvement In Trump’S “Covfefe” Affair Showed Its Newfound Political Power And Influence
When Donald Trump tweeted the mysterious six word phrase “Despite the constant negative press covfefe” on May 31, 2017, no one was quite sure what it meant.
Then Google stepped in and helpfully provided a translation of the phrase: “We will stand up.” This seemed to make perfect sense — until the New York Times published an article challenging this interpretation.
A professor of Arabic declared that “covfefe” was completely meaningless, which put Google’s translation into question.
At this point, Google employees took things into their own hands and began secretly tinkering with their own translation services.
Instead of displaying a translation for “covfefe,” they programmed Google Translate to simply show a man shrugging emoji – as if to suggest that not even they could decipher Trump’s tweet.
This small yet powerful move made Trump look particularly bad by publicly bringing his credibility into question.
It wasn’t the most alarming thing Google did, but it was certainly telling – and it illustrates how quickly and easily their employees can manipulate information for their own political agenda.
The Covfefe Affair Was The Catalyst For Zach Vorhies’ Whistleblowing Of Google
The discovery of Google’s “blacklists” caused a massive uproar among conservatives when whistle-blower, Zach Vorhies, went public about the topic.
The blacklisted websites like True Pundit, Louder with Crowder and GlennBeck.com were ones that he believed to be targeted by Google with their search results.
This lead him to believe that the company was deliberately trying to suppress content from these sites rather than allowing it to appear in Google Now newsfeeds.
Zach Vorhies then decided to take action and reach out to the investigative news group Project Veritas.
Here, he revealed his findings about Google extensively and provided detailed insights on how he believed the search engine had been attempting to keep certain information away from those seeking it.
He was confident that his discoveries would bring forth an in-depth investigation into the matter but despite this nothing came of it as Project Veritas remained noticeably silent on the issue.
This prompted Zach Vorhies to eventually leave Google entirely as he felt that its actions hindered on its original motto “Don’t be evil”.
However when a secret recording was revealed which featured a Google executive admitting they did not have enough “resources to prevent another Trump situation”; something shifted within Project Veritas as they created a report based off what Zach had told them featuring him as an anonymous source – finally bringing attention to the matter at hand and proving Vorhie’s point all along.
Zach Vorhies’ Harrowing Confrontation With Google Exposes The Reality Of Whistleblower Retaliation
When Zach Vorhies, a former Google employee, decided to share his discoveries with the world, he knew that Google would eventually take action against him.
Sure enough, shortly after the exposé appeared, he received a cease-and-desist letter from Google demanding that he return his company laptop containing all of the internal documents.
However, instead of complying with this request, Vorhies sent it to the US Department of Justice along with 950 pages of relevant documents.
He also got in touch with his contact at Project Veritas and instructed them to share the documents publicly in case of his death.
Although these precautionary measures might have seemed paranoid at first, soon afterward Vorhies went through a frightening experience when Google asked police officers to perform a wellness check on him.
With guns drawn and even a bomb disposal robot present at his door, the situation escalated quickly – but finally, almost a week later Project Veritas published something they had never done before: an interview with Zach Vorhies himself under his own name as well as all 950 pages of acquired documents.
By doing so, they got the word out about what was truly happening inside Google – and thanks to Vorhies’ courageous action, no physical damage occurred.
Wrap Up
The main takeaway from Google Leaks is open up our eyes to what’s going on at one of the most powerful companies in the world.
It reveals that there are significant concerns about Google’s political bias and censorship which only intensified following the 2016 presidential election.
These practices, which involve blacklists, artificial intelligence, and the suppression of opposing views, are both unethical and dangerous.
Moreover, Zach Vorhies’ courage in coming forward with his insights was no small feat — it should serve as an inspiration for others to speak out against injustice whenever they observe it.
