diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 1b17ea57b9d..e69de29bb2d 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-[submodule "google/protobuf"]
-	path = google/protobuf
-	url = https://github.com/google/protobuf.git
diff --git a/google/protobuf b/google/protobuf
deleted file mode 160000
index fb714b3606b..00000000000
--- a/google/protobuf
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit fb714b3606bd663b823f6960a73d052f97283b74