Google Leaks: A Whistleblower's Exposé of Big Tech Censorship

by Kent Heckenlively, Kent Heckenlively

A Story of Big Tech Censorship and Bias and the Fight to Save Our Country
 
The madness of Google's attempt to mold our reality into a version dictated by their corporate values has never been portrayed better than in this chilling account by Google whistleblower, Zach Vorhies. As a senior engineer at Zach watched in horror from the inside as the 2016 election of Donald Trump drove Google into a frenzy of censorship and political manipulation. The American ideal of an honest, hard-fought battle of ideas—when the contest is over, shaking hands and working together to solve problems—was replaced by a different, darker ethic alien to this country's history as wave after of censorship destroyed free speech and entire market sectors.
 
Working with  New York Times  bestselling author Kent Heckenlively ( Plague of Corruption ), Vorhies and Heckenlively weave a tale of a tech industry once beloved by its central figure for its innovation and original thinking, turned into a terrifying “woke-church” of censorship and political intolerance. For Zach, an intuitive counter-thinker, brought up on the dystopian futures of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and Ray Bradbury, it was clear that Google was attempting nothing less than a seamless rewriting of the operating code of reality in which many would not be allowed to participate.
 
Using Google's own internal search engine, Zach discovered their real "AI-Censorship" system called “Machine Learning Fairness,” which he claims is a merging of critical race theory and AI that was secretly released on their users of search, news and YouTube. He collected and released 950 pages of these documents to the Department of Justice and to the public in the summer of 2019 through Project Veritas with James O'Keefe, which quickly became their most popular whistleblower story, which started a trend of big whistleblowing.
 
From Google re-writing their news algorithms to target Trump to using human tragedy emergencies to inject permanent blacklists, Zach and Kent provide a “you are there” perspective on how Google turned to the dark side to seize power. They finish by laying out a solution to fight censorship. Read this book if you care to know how Google tries to manipulate, censor, and downrank the voice of its users.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Technology

192 pages, Hardcover

Published August 3, 2021

About the author

When I was fourteen years old I submitted my first story to ANALOG magazine, devoted to short science fiction stories. My story did not get accepted, but I did get a gentle rejection letter which told me to keep writing. In college I wrote my first novel, spent many years writing screenplays, and eventually ran across a story I thought I could turn into a non-fiction story. That was PLAGUE, co-authored with Dr. Judy Mikovits.

In between writing, I worked a summer for a United States Senator, spent two summers chasing bad guys at the United States Attorney's Office, and spent six weeks in a virus lab where I worked with Ebola.

In college I was a double major in English and Political Science, served as Head of our Model United Nations team, and was our school's Rhodes Scholar Candidate. In law school I was a writer and editor for law review, and also won top honors in our Mock Trial class.

I worked as a lawyer with my dad for several years, then found myself drawn to my original love of science and became a science teacher. Now I get to teach science during the day and write about it at night.

Reviews

[Jay Best · Rating 1 out of 5]

A conspiracy theory from a former employee.

There were huge real world, proven issues of foreign content farms writing, targeting and tuning FB to link to these.

Possibly the author was confusing censorship with accurate results.

[Bhavin H · Rating 1 out of 5]

I mean the author went on to work for “infowars” for crying out loud but yes if you’re looking for some insight into how Google works and how they tilt the scale you’ll be received by a cry baby author who is just upset that others are upset over an election and Google is curating their search result to match the trends, I mean that’s just Google’s expertise that’s what made them google. If you’re not a partisan hack this book is just ragepon for people who imagine they’re being targeted and called out for being absolutely despicable, nope you can’t exercise free speech to criticize them but they can do so and they hate that a vast majority have become more kind and less ignorant and bigoted like them.

[Nestor · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is a book by a resentful Trump supporter and ex-Google employee who tries to present himself as someone intelligent, with some relationship problems, then fighting the system and trying to climb the ladder ("the American dream"), looking like those who start from the bottom and achieve success, it seems like the script of any Hollywood bad movie. He describes situations in which Google supposedly favors Democrats while trashing Trump. The documents that he uses are of dubious authenticity and have anonymous informants. The perfect "conspiracy theory", he presents himself as the hero born from ashes, who comes out from below, struggling to overcome his "limitations", and fighting against the oppression of the system. He like other right "conspiracy theorists" around there: could be a Bolsonaro in Brazil, Milei in Argentina, or Lepen in France, all are the same: deranged and Lunatic.) A bad book, luckily that it has only a few pages, otherwise I would have abandoned it.

His conspiracy theory about MGM, Saudi Arabia, and the lack of need from the US to import oil from them is stupid. 1st) Yes, Fracking has provided the US with a cushion to lower oil imports but SA diverted their exports to the now number one consumer China, 2) Oil production and consumption worldwide increased to 103 mmbbl/d from 85 mmbbl/d so there's room for everybody O&G production there's a market for all, 3) At the peak in 2003 SA exported 1,9 mmbbl/d that's only less 20% of the SA production. So the allegations are plainly stupid. The Internet links that he uses either don't work or provide any useful information like the one from Soros and MGM. The 8th Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland is still in Google, not banned...Cancer Cure is still there no problem...not banned...Las Vegas Shooting, 118,000,000 pages have not been banned...just type and look for everything you want..even.

He's just another deranged that thinks that life passes through social media, the internet, and Google searches...well, I tell you not. Life does not pass through them. Life is not on TV, newspaper, radio, or social media, never been. Those are just appendixes and no rational person believes what is in there.

I put this book at the same level as Geoengineered Transhumanism: How the Environment Has Been Weaponized by Chemicals, Electromagnetics, & Nanotechnology for Synthetic Biology and the author at the same level as Elana Freeland

The are many loonies out there with "conspiracy theories"...he's one of them.

[Eric Holloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very gripping and factual read

First I like all the documented evidence the author includes. It lends credibility to the many powerful stories he tells. The thesis that Google has a well oil machine to influence people is very unsurprising. I keep abreast of pro-life news and other sources that liberals hate, and I see them get deplatformed one way or another regularly on all the tech platforms including Google search.

There are a couple claims that really stood out. Read the book to discover what they are!
1. a very plausible alternative theory for mandalay towers shooting
2. the truth about the youtube shooter
3. google's orwellian 'healthcheck'
4. a very concerning connection between the tech companies and the intel agencies
5. finally the real meaning of covfefe is revealed
6. the true connection between Hillary and Benghazi
7. what google has to do with the past few elections

[Jenni Gard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read that chronicles Zach's experience becoming a whistleblower at Google. A lot of the country already suspected much of his claims but he was able to gather the evidence to actually prove it. Most of his stories about what was being censored I had heard rumblings about but there were definitely a few that I had never heard the alternative narratives which just lends more support to Zach's stories -- that the media is driving the narrative and that Big Tech is driving what is 'right' and 'wrong'.

Regardless of your political beliefs, I like to think that most people can agree with Zach's conclusion that it's ultimately up to us as information consumers to determine what is demonstrably true after thorough consideration of a variety of sources and the ultimate failure of Big Tech is taking away our freedom to think and conclude for ourselves.

[Lisa Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Great writing and riveting story.

I was expecting something totally different and understandable to only a Silicon Valley computer nerd. Instead, this book was so well-written and compelling. I could not put it down. I appreciate the way he broke down how the media suppresses important facts in order to present one narrative that eliminates any further questions.

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just a PR book with very little tell-all about Google's practices to Censor Conservative America (esp. none we didn't know). I also had a Lot of fluff. IMO It was almost a Bad book but I can see the PR value in writing it. If you view my notes you'll see almost the 1st 100 pages have the story we all know about Google's employee meeting Cry-In and self-pity... and most of the rest is the author trying to pump up his own personal history (which nobody will care about except him). Also, the book ended early by Running out of inside stuff and pitching more Fluff about the on-stage appearance with James O'keefe and other whistleblowers he showed on stage at CPAC... woohoo!

IMO this is almost a waste of time But we should recognize people who've given up employment to tell us the Evil going on at American Corporations in the name of progressive libiocy and Communism.

[Steven H · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE ‘GOOGLE WHISTLEBLOWER’ TELLS HIS STORY

Author Zach Vorhies wrote in the Prologue to this 2021 book, “Google wants me dead… That’s why, in my ‘exit interview’ from Google a few weeks earlier, I gave them a phony address, that of my friend. They suspected I was the ‘anonymous whistleblower’ who’d appeared in a Project Veritas video … a few months earlier… I detailed how I’d collected more than nine hundred pages of documents from internal servers, which I’d been legally permitted to do at the same time as a Google employee. And I made it clear that Google was lying about their claim to be a ‘neutral platform’ … where everybody was free to speak their mind. I’d worked for Google for eight and a half years, become a senior engineer.. But the company I loved had changed… free people are not supposed to be treated like prisoners. And that’s what I believe my former employer was doing with its censoring algorithms, and other tricks designed to bring about what they believed to be a better world.” (Pg. viii)

He recounts, “On November 8, 2016 [Election Day], I was working at Google’s YouTube office in San Bruno… I was aware the leftists hated Trump so much… But honestly, I didn’t spend much time thinking either way about it. It also seemed clear to me Google was boosting positive Hillary Clinton news to the top of the search results, while at the same time, boosting negative Donald Trump stories. Later it came out Facebook was doing the same thing, so it didn’t really surprise me to see it at Google… Since I knew the political feelings inside Google, it didn’t surprise me.” (Pg. 2) Hillary lost the election, of course, and “Employees at Google were taking the day off because they were having emotional meltdowns over the election.” (Pg. 3)

He watched the ‘All-Hands’ meeting that Thursday, where Google’s executives offered consolation. “Kent Walker, vice president for Global Affairs … and chief legal officer, took the stage… The audience members were deadly silent, hanging onto his every word… I saw it for what it was. It was the language of a cult leader, telling us who was good and who was evil.” (Pg. 9)

Afterwards, he comments, “Had there ever been a nakedly political corporate reaction to an election? Sure, certain industries were likely to be more or less in favor of a certain candidate or political party. But there had been something of an unwritten corporate rule in America that the workplace was free from politics. Google had not only crossed that line, in my opinion, but were acting as if no such line even existed. This wasn’t just hidden bias, but right there in your face, for all the employees to see.” (Pg. 12)

He wonders, “The election of Donald Trump was a PROBLEM, which needed a SOLUTION. ‘Progress’ needed to be made on that problem, and the name of the solution was ‘machine learning,’ which had already been developed… the real problem was how to ‘scale’ it up. Was Google planning to build a weapon against the newly elected president of the United States? I was going to find out.” (Pg. 17)

He recounts, “After my month Google sabbatical… I decided I liked trying to be an entrepreneur rather than a software engineer… I’d also started a relationship with a wonderful woman… I decided to talk to Google and see if I could work part-time, cutting my work schedule to three days so I could focus the remaining time on [his project] as well as my girlfriend. I thought it was a reasonable suggestion, but the woman … in the human resources department said absolutely not. She informed I had to leave Google immediately. Technically, if I was working on a new product while working for Google, Google owned it. Because of those concerns, in August 2013 I resigned from Google.” (Pg. 42-43) But he returned to Google in August 2016. (Pg. 52)

He recounts, “I wondered why they were choosing to label the story as fake. What if it wasn’t fake, just politically inconvenient to Hillary Clinton? Maybe the claim about Google being on the side of Clinton and the globalists wasn’t too far-fetched. But… As an engineer I understood there couldn’t simply be humans making the decision as to what was fake and real news. They had to have some sort of ‘fake news’ filter to censor what they didn’t want the public to see. There had to be a program to accomplish their plans.” (Pg. 57-58)

He asserts, “Google was openly declaring war on objective reality, according to their own internal documents. And without disclosure, they were going to roll this monstrosity out to the American public.” (Pg. 59) He adds, “They hadn’t made the case to me that there was something fundamentally flawed with free speech. It just seemed like they didn’t approve of the election results.” (Pg. 63)

He asserts, “Did YouTube and Google believe the tyrannical system of control they were creating would end up any better than all those which had failed throughout human history? Was there something in the water of Silicon Valley, or maybe in the superior intellects of California, which would allow them to avoid the mistakes of the past, and finally usher in the Golden Age?” (Pg. 73)

He admits, “Google had deployed their real-time censoring of breaking news stories to control the things the world was likely to see… there was no outlet Google hated more than tiny, but courageous Breitbart News. I was going to contact Breitbart and turn over all the information I could get my hands on… I was looking at a cover-up of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history [the Las Vegas massacre] as well as an obfuscation of a civil war in the Middle East [a 2017 attempt on Saudi royalty]. I had become an enemy of Google.” (Pg. 92)

He explains, “[A] blacklist contained search terms that were banned for videos on YouTube.” (Pg. 93) “Having found three blacklists, I decided that such evidence must be preserved… But this was raising a serious question in my mind… Was Google becoming evil? Instead of organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible, Google was installing itself as the secret gatekeeper to your access to information.” (Pg. 103) He continues, “I had damning information about Google, and I’d offered it to the only two entities I trusted, Breitbart and Project Veritas. I couldn’t understand why Project Veritas wasn’t interested in my story… Nobody knew what I’d done … You might call me an unindicted traitor to my company, and that’s just how I felt.” (Pg. 111)

He resigned on June 19, 2019: “I was planning to sneak away from Google and YouTube, not letting them know I was providing their secrets to the public. I wanted to do my duty as an American citizen, but I didn’t want to be reckless with my safety. One doesn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to know that if you publicize the secrets of a large corporation you put yourself at significant risk.” (Pg. 121) He adds, “Was I being crazy by going public? I was going up against one of the richest companies on the planet… I was an anonymous ‘whistle-blower’ and when I’d left Google, it was on good terms. I did not suggest when I resigned that I hated what they were doing as much as I did.” (Pg. 126)

He reports, “I contacted a lawyer … I’ll simply refer to her as ‘Lady Justice.’ … Lady Justice told me I should expect things to get rough, and that Google would try to destroy me… I had one big problem. I still had Google’s laptop and it contained evidenced of how I had accessed the Google network and downloaded the documents… Google wanted it, but giving it back to them would inevitably be used by Google to convict me on some trumped up charge, like they had done to the previous whistleblower, Kevin Cernekee. I had to lose the laptop… I went home, put the laptop in a box, along with nine hundred and fifty pages of Google’s plans for global-scale censorship. I drafted a letter to law enforcement… Who did I address the box to? None other than the Department of Justice Anti-Trust Division.” (Pg. 129-130)

He reports, “On June 24, 2019, Project Veritas released their exposé on Google, featuring me as the ‘Anonymous Google Whistleblower.’” (Pg. 131) He decides, “I needed to get out of San Francisco, record another interview with Project Veritas, and reveal myself to the world.” (Pg. 137) He adds, “My hope was that other whistleblowers would follow in my footsteps.” (Pg. 142) He concludes, “My publication of the Google documents was meant to stimulate a conversation about how our understanding of the world is being shaped by a relatively small number of people in Big Tech.” (Pg. 166)

Well, Zach Vorhies is apparently still alive and well (no MURDER disguised as a suicide), with a website and a Twitter account. So perhaps his actions were not as ‘dramatic’ as he now wants us to think.

Okay, so Google is apparently not as 'objective' as they would have us believe. You're always welcome to use a different search engine...

[Burt Jurgens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vorhies is a brave man with integrity. I think everyone should hear his account; I was already in agreement with most of his points and found his insider account of what is really happening fascinating and valuable. I am sure some readers will find the information challenging and try to find ways to discount it - probably by insinuating there is something wrong with the author. I would assert this tendency is a problem with our society and it is those readers who desperately need to read this book and many others to broaden their viewpoint. I read far more than is reflected in this forum but I would say this is one of the most important books I have read recently at least relative to our current world predicament and the manipulation of perception and public discourse. Highly recommended.

[Patrick Duran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! Finally, a more plausible explanation for the Las Vegas massacre than the false narrative that has been pushed on the American public since that devastating day. I am more inclined to believe it was a botched assassination attempt as Vorhies describes. Maybe this theory has been out there for awhile but it's the first I'm hearing of it, in part due to Google's censorship mechanisms. He is a true American Patriot even if, in my opinion, he was misguided in his participation in the Occupy Wall Street movement years ago.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s some good stuff here. Read this book

There’s a lot of irrelevant bio information along with what seems like a travelogue in this book , but the core content makes it really worthwhile. Google, Facebook et al are in a leftist bubble that is trying to make sure that only their values matter. The values of the other half of the country should be suppressed or disappeared. It’s really scary to think a company as large as google would have a corporate pity party when Hillary lost. It’s even scarier that they vowed never to let something like that happen again. They succeeded in 2020. It’s gonna get s book is just the tip of the iceberg.

[Rainy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not just a book about big tech but also personal believes. It demonstrates very well how devided the United States have become by radicalization on both sides of the political spectrum. In the case of the author, he's turned to more conversative points of views, arguably caused by the "Woke" movement.

There's no denying that Google is manipulating public opinion. The book demonstrates this very well. It's a cautionary tale that deserves to be heard.

However, it gets a bit dull by the musings of the authors upbringing and later political views. If you can work through this, it's certainly worth a try.

[Paul Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

We all need to know more about how Big Tech works and what and how they're censoring things. It was interesting to see an insider view of what Google/Youtube are doing.

The author loses credibility as he embraces various right-wing conspiracy theories, and proceeds assuming that he's made solid cases that they're true and Google is intentionally covering them up to further their political agenda. All the dots were not connected. Thankfully it was short, I'll look for a more credible book in the future.

[Prafull · Rating 4 out of 5]

The key message :

As a Google employee, Zach Vorhies was alarmed by what he saw as the company’s gradual drift toward political partisanship and deliberate censorship. In the wake of Donald Trump’s election, he became increasingly disillusioned by the political course the tech giant seemed to be pursuing – in a campaign he alleged involved “blacklists,” AI, and the dismissal of dissent as “fake news.” Eventually, it all became too much for him, and Vorhies went public with his claims, revealing Google’s internal documents.

[Alexandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving 5 stars for the message the author is trying to convey.

This said, I think that the main ideas of the book could have been resumed in a short article of about 20-30 pages.

Most of you are probably better off watching the Project Veritas video.

The rest of the book is made of personal life stories and anecdotes that I didn't find interesting at all.

Also, there is too much politics involved for my taste and the author's point of view is clearly polarized.

[Donna Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zach Vorhies IS truly a hero!

The book is is truly so intriguing I almost couldn't put it down! Interesting to find out no judicial actions are taken against the big
3 tech companies because of their secret agreement with the NSA. Sounds like a great storyline for another Mission Impossible movie!

[8inv]

It's tough to swallow what Big Tech is doing for the "greater good". It goes beyond censorship when you code “Machine Learning Fairness” to tackle facts so that algorythms are politically correct. Who's to say what's fair and what's not, it depends on the perspective. People like Zach should be heard, instead, they're hidden under the mat.

[Mitchell Broom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have 3 stars because it’s very valuable in what it’s teaching, the fact Google silenced many news articles relevant to us and decided there’d be in charge of what news information to provide is very worrying.

Would recommend to everyone whose skepticism or corporations and wants to understand the power they have

[vidyuth Kini · Rating 5 out of 5]

must read

No you are not too busy. No your todo list isn’t too long. Stop it all and read this. It’s important. If you’ve been paying any attention at all to what’s going on these last few years, and even if you are well into this game, this book is worth your time and effort.

[Lucy Morningstar · Rating 5 out of 5]

We've all suspected/knew that Google and social media platforms censor information.

This book tells how bad it is, and how it is done, from a senior engineer who had been part of it.

It is very well written, and quite a page turner.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Required reading for anyone who uses Google—shows just how biased your search results are, and the extreme lengths it’s gone to censor everything from conservative voices to the Las Vegas shooter news. Truly eye-opening.

[Justin Andrusk · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book! I'm really surprised this books hasn't gotten more attention as it has historical significance along with what the future will look like.

[Vader · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish

[Taran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great information in here, a little rough around the edges but overall entertaining and worth the time.

[The 99th Edition · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrifying!

[Rein Burink · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh