An ‘alt-right’ leader called off a planned protest of Google over the firing of James Damore

An “alt-right” provocateur and known conspiracy theorist has called off a planned protest of Google in the wake of the search giant’s firing of James Damore, the former employee who attributed the absence of women in tech to “biological” factors.

Initially, Jack Posobiec sought to target Google’s headquarters in California and eight other company campuses around the country, part of a campaign to oppose the tech giant as an “anti free speech monopoly,” he has said.

After announcing the protest, however, “alt-right” supporters faced new criticism for their involvement in another incident: The white supremacist and neo-Nazi demonstration in Charlottesville, Va. Dozens were injured and one counter-protester was killed, leading Posobiec in recent days to stress his effort is “in no way associated with any group who organized there.”

By early Wednesday, Posobiec canceled the march entirely — at least for now.

Some of the event pages set up on Facebook appear to suggest that Posobiec’s plans to rally “alt-right” supporters at Google’s offices never really seemed to resonate.

For his part, Damore has sidestepped questions about his involvement in the effort. “I support Google, and I really do want Google to improve, so I don’t support efforts to try to hurt Google directly,” he told CNBC when asked about his views on the “alt-right” movement.

Pressed again as to whether he’s involved in protest planning, though, Damore merely replied: “No, not really.”

Posobiec himself is a controversial figure: He’s one of the drivers of the so-called PizzaGate conspiracy theory and he perpetuated the falsehood that Democrats killed one of their own aides during the 2016 presidential election.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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