MOUNTAIN VIEW — Google CEO Sundar Pichai canceled an employee town hall meeting on Thursday about a controversial anti-diversity memo written by a fired employee because of online harassment concerns, the company said. He briefly addressed the controversy at an awards ceremony Thursday evening.

Questions from the tech firm’s employees about gender issues were being leaked outside of the company, raising concerns about online harassment. Some of these employees were named on social media and websites.

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Google’s fired engineer gives first explanation of his inflammatory sexist memo “Googlers are writing in, concerned about their safety and worried they may be ‘outed’ publicly for asking a question in the Town Hall,” Pichai wrote in a memo to staff. “In recognition of Googlers’ concerns, we need to step back and create a better set of conditions for us to have the discussion.”

He said that in the coming days the company will find forums where Google employees can speak freely and comfortably about the issue.

Software engineer James Damore was fired Monday after he wrote a post criticizing Google’s diversity initiatives as “discriminatory.” The post, which claimed that biological differences between women and men may explain why there is a gender gap in tech, sparked a backlash in Silicon Valley.

Women, on average, are more agreeable, display higher anxiety and show a higher interest in people rather than things, Damore wrote.

“Note, I’m not saying that all men differ from all women in the following ways or that these differences are ‘just,’ ” Damore wrote in the post. “I’m simply stating that the distribution of preferences and abilities of men and women differ in part due to biological causes and these differences may explain why we don’t see equal representation of women in tech and leadership.”

While the memo was widely criticized by tech executives for “advancing harmful gender stereotypes,” there has been a debate about whether Google should have fired Damore.

“The vast majority of you are very supportive of our decision. A smaller percentage of you wish we would do more. And some are worried that you cannot speak out at work freely. All of your voices and opinions matter … and I want to hear them,” Pichai wrote.

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Pichai was scheduled to answer questions at a town hall at 4 p.m. on Thursday.

The company is also being targeted in a protest march by the alt-right, which is scheduled on Aug. 19. Recode, which reported earlier about the meeting cancellation, said that some of the names of Google employees appeared on alt-right sites.

At the opening of an awards ceremony for a worldwide app-building competition for girls, Pichai made a remark clearly aimed at the controversy over Damore’s memo.

“To the girls who dream of being an engineer or an entrepreneur, and who dream of creating amazing things, I want you to know that there’s a place for you in this industry, there’s a place for you at Google,” he told the crowd gathered at a company recreation field.

“Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise,” he said to cheers and applause. “You belong here and we need you.”

Pichai told the audience, which included about 50 contest finalists from seven countries including the U.S., that seeing the girls gave him hope for the future.

“At Google we are very committed to building products for everyone in the world,” Pichai said. “To do that well, we really need to have people internally who represent the world in totality.

“It’s really important that more women and girls have the opportunity to participate in technology, to learn how to code, create and innovate.”