Former Google exec says he was pushed out for defending human rights

People like Kent Walker, Google's chief lawyer and head of policy, reportedly raised concerns that a formal commitment to human rights could increase Google's liability. LaJeunesse continued the work anyway, but he says senior executives always came up with a way to say no and that he was sidelined from conversations about whether to launch Project Dragonfly, which Google officially closed last year.

That commitment is unrelated to and unaffected by the reorganization of our policy team, which was widely reported and which impacted many members of the team.

While LaJeunesse's claims could be an opportunistic play for attention as he prepares to run for Senate in Maine, where he is challenging Susan Collins, this is not the first time we've heard that Google does not support human rights or workplace diversity.