Google Walkout co-organiser Claire Stapleton on speaking up, corporate power and professional ethics in the age of AI.
Speaker
Claire Stapleton
Agenda
12:30 - Event start and welcome
12:35 - In conversation: Claire Stapleton with Julie Hendry
13:15 - Questions from members
13:30 - Event close
Synopsis
In November 2018 around 20,000 Google employees walked out over the company's handling of sexual harassment claims. Claire Stapleton was one of the organisers. In this online session she talks with Julie Hendry, Treasurer of the BCS ICT Ethics Specialist Group, about what it takes to speak up inside a large technology company, what happened afterwards, and what it means for technology professionals now that AI is reshaping how decisions get made at work.
Delegates will come away with:
- a first-hand account of organising dissent inside Big Tech, and its costs
- the gap between corporate ethics statements and how organisations respond when staff raise concerns
- what professional ethics asks of individual practitioners and of leaders, and where BCS members fit.
A joint session from the BCS ICT Ethics Specialist Group and the BCS IT Leaders Forum.
About the speaker
Claire Stapleton is a writer, former Google employee, and advocate for worker rights and corporate accountability in tech. She is the author of Don’t Be Evil: Bad Bosses, Fake Promises, and My Escape from Big Tech (HarperCollins, 2026), a memoir exploring Google's evolving corporate culture, the contradictions of Silicon Valley idealism, and the consequences of speaking out.
During her twelve years at Google and YouTube, she worked in communications, marketing, and creative roles before helping organise the 2018 Google Walkout, which mobilised more than 20,000 employees worldwide to protest sexual harassment and discrimination. After experiencing retaliation for her organising, she left Google in 2019.
Her writing examines the intersection of technology, ethics, labour, and institutional power, particularly the gap between Big Tech's stated values and its internal practices. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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This event is brought to you by: ICT Ethics.
