DB 🌱💦The man who wrote "Don't be evil" said he chose it specifically so it would be hard to remove. Paul Buchheit, the engineer who later built Gmail, suggested the phrase at a Google corporate values meeting on July 19, 2001.
Then in early 2018, internal documents leaked showing that Google had signed a Pentagon contract to build AI to analyze drone footage. By April, over 3,000 Google employees had signed a letter to Sundar Pichai demanding the contract be cancelled.
The letter specifically cited "Don't be evil" as the standard the company was failing to meet. Dozens of engineers resigned in protest.
Sometime between late April and early May, the slogan disappeared from the code of conduct's preface.
Kevin Beaumont
John Overholt