Earlier this week, Google succeeded in restricting the distribution of certain internal documents revealed through U.S. v. Google, the landmark antitrust trial against the tech giant. But the documents are still available in various places online — this article will explain how to find them.
It is not surprising that Google is touchy about the disclosure of its internal communications. The tech giant has faced massive, embarrassing leaks in the past, including the Google Tape, The Good Censor, and YouTube’s search blacklists, all obtained published by Breitbart News. A lawsuit brought against Google by former employees also revealed a widespread atmosphere of bigotry and intolerance towards white male employees inside the company.
To minimize the damage in U.S. v. Google, the tech giant this week asked district judge Amit Mehta, responding to complaints from Google, reprimanded the Department of Justice for posting exhibits from the trial without notifying him. In response, the DoJ took down the documents, which contain a number of internal communications from Google, from its website.
But the takedown did not happen before copies of the files had been backed up and saved elsewhere. They can currently be found in two places:
- At the Wayback Machine, a site maintained by the Internet Archive.
- At the Verge, a tech news website.
The files include several internal email chains from Google, a number of internal presentations, and Google’s internal research on its products.
Since the documents were disclosed through a public trial, they are not confidential. Through its complaints to the judge, Google merely succeeded in preventing the Department of Justice from publicizing them, not removing them from public access altogether.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. Follow him on Twitter @AllumBokhari.
