If Google Is Biased, So Are Its Algorithms

James Damore and David Gudeman's remarkable discrimination lawsuit against their former employer, Google, raises an important issue, though perhaps not quite the one the plaintiffs intended. It has more to do with Google's oversized role in delivering information to the world than with its work culture and internal rules.

Damore -- the author of a famous memo against Google's diversity policies that got him fired last year -- and Gudeman, an engineer who says he was also dismissed for his conservative views, claim in the lawsuit that Google routinely discriminates against Caucasian males and conservatives. They cite internal emails and posts from the corporate social network to demonstrate what they say is widely tolerated and encouraged harassment of people like them. They also describe Google's hiring and firing practices that they believe are in violation of California law. As they lay out the examples, they often appear to conflate whiteness, maleness and conservative views, as if they're equally undesirable parts of a package that Google treats as toxic.