Google cancels staff meeting after Gamergate-style attack on employees

Firing of James Damore, engineer behind controversial anti-diversity memo, sparks ire from 'alt-right' reminiscent of 2014 Gamergate harassment campaign

Google cancelled a company-wide meeting on Thursday after several of its employees became targets of a Gamergate-style campaign of harassment by internet trolls angered by the firing of an engineer who had written a controversial memo about diversity.

"We had hoped to have a frank, open discussion today as we always do to bring us together and move forward," CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in an email. But following the leak of proposed discussion questions, he said "Googlers", a term used internally to describe employees, were being personally named on websites.