Update June 12th: We just found out the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet (Google’s parent company), will all participate in Trump’s “American Technology Council” on June 19th.
After the past 145 days of this dangerous administration, it’s become clear that working with the Trump administration is tantamount to endorsing its agenda.
That message was reinforced clearly last month when the CEOs of Tesla and Disney dropped off of Trump’s business advisory council as a matter of principle following Trump’s short-sighted decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement.
Now tech leaders have the same principled choice to make: Think only of your bottom line and influence your company has within the anti-immigrant, climate change-denying Trump administration or refuse to assist Trump’s dangerous agenda and take a principled stand for our communities and planet.
Tell Silicon Valley companies to make the right choice: don’t collaborate with the Trump Administration.
Update Jan 31, 2017: The Trump Administration has enacted an immoral and illegal travel ban that has sent shockwaves of outrage through the international community. While some Silicon Valley leaders have condemned the executive order, few are backing it up with meaningful action.
Silicon Valley executives continue to advise and work with the administration-- and that is pure cowardice. It's time for executives to have the backs of their employees who have been speaking and walking out in protest over the Trump administration recent actions.
Update Jan 9, 2017: Following Trump's meeting with leaders from Facebook, Alphabet, Apple and other Silicon Valley corporations, the tech industry seems more poised than ever to assist the Trump administration in carrying out its dangerous, democracy-threatening agenda. In the days leading up to the inauguration, tech corporations must take a clear stand and refuse to collaborate with the Trump administration.
Donald Trump’s agenda is a dangerous, existential threat to our communities and democracy -- and now he’s trying to get Silicon Valley to help him to execute it.
Trump is already showing us the kind of administration he will run -- one that will put our communities, freedoms, families, and democracy in grave danger -- and it’s time for tech corporations to pick a side.
In the few weeks since the election, Trump has:
- Confirmed he is going to try to build a wall between the US and Mexico, and pledged to deport 3 million undocumented people.
- Appointed Steve Bannon, a white nationalist, as his chief White House strategist and a proud Islamophobe who once called Islam “a cancer” as national security adviser.
- Chosen Jeff Sessions, a man deemed too racist to be a federal judge, as the head of the Justice Department, the agency responsible for protecting all Americans equally under the law.
Since Trump’s election, hate crimes have spiked all over the country. Trump’s billionaire-filled cabinet is positioning itself to deregulate corporations en masse and enforce all of the most horrific of promises from his campaign. The safety of communities and our democracy depends on each and every one of us speaking out against the normalcy of this presidency.
Already, media and tech organizations are trying to downplay Trump’s rhetoric and choices in the hopes to gain better access. We must push back against the normalization of Trump’s dangerous, radical agenda.
These Silicon Valley giants are susceptible to public pressure. Many of the staff, and even the CEOs, find Trump’s ideology repulsive but are afraid to speak out because of accusations of bias. But you can’t stay neutral in the face of oppression.
After nearly 150,000 SOU members spoke out against Facebook censoring users at police request, Facebook responded and has begun to change its policies. This is proof that people power works -- and right now, we need to make sure Silicon Valley knows we’re fighting for our democracy.
More information
Bloomberg. 9 June 2017.
New York Times. 6 December 2016.
Toronto Star. 18 November 2016.
The Atlantic. 21 November 2016.
Time. 22 November 2016.