Google has suspended a fake information ethics researcher weeks after another team member fired him, a recently formed union said.
The Alphabet Workers’ Union, created by employees of parent company Google, said in a statement this week that it was “concerned about blocking the physical access of Margaret Mitchell,” union member and principal investigator.
Mitchell’s ban came in response to the downloading and sharing of company documents, according to a Google report to Axios, which said the documents were aimed at exposing discrimination treatment on Timnit Gebru, another member of the ethics team AI, which was fired last year.
“Together these are an attack on the people who are trying to make Google technology more ethical,” the union said in a statement.
Google went against criticism last month after Gebru was fired, after she said a search paper order had been withdrawn.
The tech giant did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment. In a statement to Axios, Google said Mitchell ‘s email account was locked waiting for an internal probe to download a large number of files and share them with people outside the company.
Last month, more than 1,400 Google employees were among nearly 3,300 signatures on an online letter asking the tech giant to dismiss Gebru along with the reason for ordering her to pull her search back.
The letter called on Google to make a “clear” commitment to search integrity and academic freedom.
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