Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, canceled a scheduled all-hands staff meeting—moments before it was scheduled to begin—meant to address concerns over a controversial essay published by former employee James Damore.  Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai, speaking at a coding event for girls happening at Google’s campus today, emphasized the importance of engineers “building products for everyone in the world,” and said that in order to do that, “we need to have people internally who represent the world in totality.” 
 
 “I want you to know there’s a place for you in this industry,” Pichai said to the teams of young women who were finalists in a months-long app-building competition. For example, Damore wrote: “I’m simply stating that the distribution of preferences and abilities of men and women differ in part due to biological causes and that these differences may explain why we don’t see equal representation of women in tech and leadership.” 
 
 What followed was a list of those differences, including a claim that women were more social and artistic and could not take the stress of high-pressure jobs. It was probably no surprise that Pichai fired Damore earlier this week for violating Google’s Code of Conduct, noting in an email to staff that “to suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK.” 
 
 Since then, it’s been a tense time for Google and also Silicon Valley, which has been reeling for months amid sexual harassment controversies at companies like Uber and at venture capital firms. Here is Pichai’s letter: 
 
 Dear Googlers, TL;DR Sorry for the late notice but we are going to cancel today’s Town Hall. We had hoped to have a frank, open discussion today as we always do to bring us together and move forward. But our Dory questions appeared externally this afternoon, and on some websites Googlers are now being named personally," Pichai said in the email. Pichai said in the email that while the majority of Googlers were supportive of the decision, some wished the company would do more. He said some also worried about not being able to speak freely at work. "All of your voices and opinions matter and I want to hear them," he said.
– Google CEO Sundar Pichai planned to address the controversy over an anti-diversity memo at an all-employee town hall meeting—but he called it off after workers said they were worried about online harassment. Pichai said questions from employees had been leaked and their identities had been published on alt-right websites, exposing them to online harassment, CNN reports. "Googlers are writing in, concerned about their safety and worried they may be 'outed' publicly for asking a question in the Town Hall," the CEO said in a letter to employees seen by Recode. He promised to "create a better set of conditions for us to have the discussion" at some point in the near future. The controversy exploded after memo author James Damore was fired for arguing that biological differences make women unsuited to some tech jobs. After canceling Thursday's meeting, Pichai spoke at an event for girls on the Google campus, addressing teams of young coders from around the world, the Verge reports. It's important that "more women and girls have the opportunity ... to learn how to code, create, and innovate," he said. "I want you to know that there's a place for you in this industry, there's a place for you at Google," he added. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You belong here and we need you." (Damore says he was "punished" and "shamed" for trying to "improve" the company.)