About 100 Google employees want the firm to be removed as a sponsor and barred from having a presence at this weekend’s parade. The effort follows a company memo that visibly protesting YouTube while marching in Google’s parade contingent would violate the latter firm’s code of conduct. Earlier this month, YouTube declined to remove conservative commentator Steven Crowder’s videos after Vox host Carlos Maza flagged that they contained homophobic and racist slurs targeting him.(Bloomberg)

Talking point: The petition is the latest in a series of instances of employee activism over Google’s HR and content policies. Last week, parent company Alphabet’s annual meeting drew protests from employees and activists over its treatment of contract workers and its exit packages for executives accused of harassing employees. In November 2018, more than 20,000 staff at Google offices in 50 cities staged walkouts over policies like forced arbitration in cases of harassment and discrimination. Following the walkouts, Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, said he supported the protesters. But in 2017 and 2018, the company lobbied the National Labor Relations Board for narrower legal protections for activist workers organizing via their work email. Google could face legal issues for its stance on protesting during Pride, as well. Catherine Fisk, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said it could violate federal and state laws protecting worker activism.