Google downgraded its famous “Don’t Be Evil” adage in its employee code of conduct
The move has been a long time coming.
- Remember Don’t Be Evil?
When Google became a verb in the early 2000s, the adage became a slogan that paid dividends for the tech company.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin enshrined it in the company’s official code of conduct for employees, and inumerable news stories and TV segments gushed over the benevolent tech giant’s admirable combination of innovation and altruism.
At some point during the past month that changed. As Gizmodo first reported on Friday, the famous phrase has lost its preeminence in Google’s code of conduct. The new code of conductmakes a passing, almost token, mention of Don’t Be Evil in the last sentence — but it’s a marked downgrade from its previous prominence in the code, when it had several paragraphs dedciated to it.