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Published time: 9 Aug, 2017 22:53 Edited time: 10 Aug, 2017 08:55

Julian Assange is offering the Google engineer fired over a controversial memo, deemed to be in breach of the companys diversity code, a job at WikiLeaks.

The WikiLeaks founder and chief tweeted, Censorship is for losers, before adding that there was a job for fired Google software engineer James Damore at his whistleblowing organization.

Damore came under fire after an internal memo he wrote, arguing that women are underrepresented in tech not due to bias, but because of inherent psychological differences from men, was published online.

EntitledGoogles Ideological Echo Chamber,it suggests that the companys political bias has created the effect of shaming into silence.

This silencing has created an ideological echo chamber where some ideas are too sacred to be honestly discussed, and the lack of discussion brings about the most extreme and authoritarian elements of this ideology, the memo says.

We need to stop assuming that gender gaps imply sexism, Damore adds, suggesting that men have a higher drive for status and women have a higher agreeableness, leading to difficulties in salary negotiation.

READ MORE: Gender gap is natural, Google employee says in 10-page internally viral memo

The memo caused a media storm over the weekend with many branding it sexist.

On Tuesday, Damore confirmedhe had been let go by the company in an email which stated the reason for dismissal was perpetuating gender stereotypes.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees Monday that parts of Damore's memo "violate our Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace."

Assange posted a series of tweets criticizing Google for firing someone for politely expressing their ideas.

He included a link to an extract from his 2014 book, When Google met WikiLeaks, in the tweets.

The excerpt, entitled, Google is not what it seems, outlines Assanges understanding of the relationship between Google and the US State Department.

READ MORE: Putting people at risk': Assanges lawyer criticizes new documentary on WikiLeaks founder

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'Censorship is for losers': Assange offers fired Google engineer job at WikiLeaks - RT

Trump supporters Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson better known as Diamond and Silk took to Twitter on Thursday to accuse YouTube of censorship and a violation of their 1st Amendment rights (yeah, we know) after the company demonetized a reported 95% of the duos videos:

The pair thinks it might have something to do with their being Trump supporters and conservatives:

YouTube responded with instructions the pair could follow to appeal the decision:

Coincidentally, Hardaway and Richardson met with officials at the Commerce Department on Monday to discuss ways in which to grow their business and build their brand. From Gizmodo:

YouTube stars Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardsonbetter known as Diamond and Silk, respectivelywere invited to the Commerce Departments headquarters this week, apparently to discuss ways in which they could expand their business. The pair runs a political blog aimed at promoting President Trump and denigrating his critics.

The Commerce Department revealed Diamond and Silks visit in a photo posted on the departments official Twitter account, which said the duo had met with the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) to discuss how to grow their business and build their brand.

A spokesperson for the department later told Gizmodo that the tweet was deleted out of an abundance of caution as the department was not clear it had received permission to post the photo:

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Diamond and Silk accuse YouTube of 'censorship' after company demonetized '95%' of their videos - Twitchy

San Francisco Examiner

Lyft drivers fear censorship after internal email about speaking to press San Francisco Examiner Scott Coriell, a Lyft spokesperson, wrote that censorship wasn't the intent, and that's not something we would ever do. In a statement Coriell forwarded from Lyft, the company said drivers are free to speak to the press, and there are no ... and more »

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Lyft drivers fear censorship after internal email about speaking to press - San Francisco Examiner

Photo by Flickr user Turinboy (CC BY 2.0)

The Egyptian authorities have continued to block websites, this time targeting the site of a human rights group as well asa columnist's blog.

Over the weekend of August 5, the government blocked the website of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), which documents and reports on human rights violations in Egypt and across the Arab region.

In August 6statement published on Facebook, the rights group slammed Egyptian authorities for the measure, while pledging to continue its work in support of human rights in the region:

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information in spite of this attack, which is a mockery of the Egyptian law and constitution by the authorities, who are supposed to respect and uphold the law remains committed to its mission to defending freedom of expression, human rights in the Arab world, exposing the violations in this part of the world, and speaking up for the victims, which is a role that now comes at a very high price more than ever, yet it also became more important than ever before.

[] ANHRI confirms that it will seek all technical means to overcome the blocking and will not give in to it, and insists that it will continue to do its role.

ANHRI is the first website belonging to a human rights group in Egypt to be censored, since authorities blocked21 websites more than two months ago, including the independent news site Mada Masr,the Arabic-language edition of the Huffington Post, and the website of the Qatar-based AlJazeera network, for allegedly supporting terrorism.

In addition to ANHRI, the blog of columnist and human rights researcher Ahmed Gamal Ziada is no longer accessible in Egypt. Ziada has been using his blog to disseminate the columns and articles he writes for websites and media blocked in Egypt. Now the blog he set up to bypass the censorship machinery of the Egyptian government has itself been targeted. The blog-publishing service Blogger, which hosts Ziada's blog, remains accessible.

A former photojournalist, Ziadaspentnearly 500 days in prison after he was arrested in December 2013 by Egyptian security forces while covering a student protest and taking footage of police beating two students.His articles mainly address politics and the human rights situation in Egypt.

On Facebook, hereflected on the government's blocking of his blog and what it means to him:

: 1 . 2 .

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The [tactic] of blocking blogs is very old, but it is a precedence in the era of [President] Abdelfattah al-Sisi, and apart from the fact that the blocking of the blog may not be of importance to the world, it does matter to me for two reasons:

1) They have made me feel that Iam indeed under siege; an arrest, an attempted murder, national security summons, blocking [my] blog in addition to every single website I worked for.

2) They have proved that I was not writing for nothing, in other words, my words have an impact even if it is for a small audience.

I want to mention that the blog was an archive for me. I started using it to post articles to bypass censorship. But, now that they have blocked it, and [shown] that they fear [its] words, I can still change the link or create a second blog. The brave continue till the end.

From May 24 to August 6, Egyptian authorities blocked 133 websites, according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), which conducted technical tests on the networks of various Internet Service Providers (ISPs) including Orange, Vodafone and Etisalat. AFTE also documented the blocking of services aimed at bypassing internet censorship and browsing the internet privately,known as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). The association reported in its research:

On Monday the 12th of June, we noticed the beginning of blocking websites that provide VPN services. Such practice points to the intent of the Government to continue blocking and filtering the content that Egyptian users could access.

What makes the situation worse, is that these blocking decisions are taken behind closed doors and without a due process that gives Egyptians the possibility to challenge them in court. Now the question is how far is the Egyptian government willing to take its internet censorship campaign and who is it going to target next.

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Rights Group Website and Columnist's Blog Become Latest Targets of Egypt's Censorship Campaign - Global Voices Online

Sen. Debbie Stabenow(Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Washington Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, wrote Tuesday to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue demanding an explanation for news reports that agency officials had instructed staff to use weather extremes instead of the term climate change.

The Guardian reported on a series of emails among staff at the USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service that also suggested avoiding the phrase reduce greenhouse gases in favor of build soil organic matter or increase nutrient use efficiency.

Censoring the agencys scientists and natural resource professionals as they try to communicate these risks and help producers adapt to a changing climate does a great disservice to the men and women who grow the food, fuel, and fiber that drive our economy, not to mention the agencys civil servants themselves, Stabenow wrote to Perdue.

This censorship makes the United States less competitive, less food secure, and puts our rural families and their communities at risk.

The USDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday but has pushed back against the news reports, telling POLITICO that there was never a directive from the Natural Resources Conservation Service that using climate change was prohibited, and indicating it was unclear why the officials who wrote the memos had brought up the issue with staff.

Stabenow in her letter asks Perdue whether other USDA officials have issued directives regarding the removal of climate change and related terms.

She also wants to know what impact the terminology change could have on implementation of USDA programs and activities, and whether USDA intends to pursue a formal rule-making or other process to accompany the policy change. She asked for a response by Aug. 23.

As a firm believer in the science that underpins the urgent imperative to address climate change, the content of these emails is of great concern to me, Stabenow wrote.

USDA ought to be unequivocal in pursuing polices that uphold scientific integrity, yet these emails from senior USDA staff appear to run directly counter to such a pursuit. USDA should be open and transparent regarding the findings of agency research and the components of agency program activities that involve the topic of climate change.

President Donald Trump has questioned the whether climate change exists and has not said whether he believes it is caused by human activity.

mburke@detroitnews.com

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Stabenow questions 'censorship' of 'climate change' - The Detroit News