<story><title>Google employees are free to speak up, except on antitrust</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/technology/google-employees-antitrust.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>harry8</author><text>&amp;gt;It would be noteworthy if a company didn&amp;#x27;t restrict their employees from publicly talking...&lt;p&gt;No it would NOT. It is absolutely noteworthy if they do such a nefarious, un-american thing.&lt;p&gt;Banning speaking on behalf of their employer. Sure. Go nuts.&lt;p&gt;Banning speaking as a private citizen because you have an opinion you wish to express in public as a private citizen representing the opinions of yourself?!?&lt;p&gt;FFS!&lt;p&gt;Are you actually serious about that???&lt;p&gt;You can&amp;#x27;t push back against that hard enough. Surely? Freedom, opposition to totalitarianism. The right to speak your mind. Even if Google doesn&amp;#x27;t like your opinion and your opinion is objective wrong, to hell with them. Freedom.</text></item><item><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>It would be noteworthy if a company didn&amp;#x27;t restrict their employees from publicly talking about legal and regulatory matters. What they&amp;#x27;re doing here is standard practice.&lt;p&gt;Average employees aren&amp;#x27;t in a position to speak accurately about antitrust matters anyway. If they misspeak, it will certainly be used against the company regardless of the actual merit.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>astrea</author><text>I think the part of that sentence you conveniently left out of the quote is the most critical. One would be wise to not talk about matters of which they know nothing about, especially if it harms their employer. I think this SV tendency to speak and rally against their employers at every turn is cutting off your nose to spite your face and comes from a place of extreme privilege.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google employees are free to speak up, except on antitrust</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/technology/google-employees-antitrust.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>harry8</author><text>&amp;gt;It would be noteworthy if a company didn&amp;#x27;t restrict their employees from publicly talking...&lt;p&gt;No it would NOT. It is absolutely noteworthy if they do such a nefarious, un-american thing.&lt;p&gt;Banning speaking on behalf of their employer. Sure. Go nuts.&lt;p&gt;Banning speaking as a private citizen because you have an opinion you wish to express in public as a private citizen representing the opinions of yourself?!?&lt;p&gt;FFS!&lt;p&gt;Are you actually serious about that???&lt;p&gt;You can&amp;#x27;t push back against that hard enough. Surely? Freedom, opposition to totalitarianism. The right to speak your mind. Even if Google doesn&amp;#x27;t like your opinion and your opinion is objective wrong, to hell with them. Freedom.</text></item><item><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>It would be noteworthy if a company didn&amp;#x27;t restrict their employees from publicly talking about legal and regulatory matters. What they&amp;#x27;re doing here is standard practice.&lt;p&gt;Average employees aren&amp;#x27;t in a position to speak accurately about antitrust matters anyway. If they misspeak, it will certainly be used against the company regardless of the actual merit.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yongjik</author><text>&amp;gt; ... such a nefarious, un-american thing ...&lt;p&gt;Well, TBH, &amp;quot;banning employees from using certain everyday terms because they have specific legal usages and the company can be sued for $$$ if the words were taken out of context&amp;quot; is one of the most American things I can think of.</text></comment>