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After weeks of silence about President Donald Trump’s new administration, tech companies like Facebook, Google and Apple are up in arms about his appalling immigration ban on some Muslim countries.
Right now, among the larger tech companies, only IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle have not commented.
Trump issued the executive order Friday and the response from digital leaders since then has been growing, along with protests at airports across the nation. In fact, Google co-founder Sergey Brin showed up at protests at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday night.
While many tech reactions have been muted and largely focused in how to deal with hardships that could result for employees because of the ban, some tech leaders — such as Netflix’s Reed Hastings — have issued strong challenges to Trump’s action.
“Trump's actions are hurting Netflix employees around the world, and are so un-American it pains us all,” wrote Hastings in a personal statement on Facebook. “Worse, these actions will make America less safe (through hatred and loss of allies) rather than more safe.”
Here’s more responses from tech leaders, although I am leaving a lot out (and will add more as I see them):
Doordash
Tony Xu, founder and CEO of DoorDash, tweeted Sunday that his company was going to give food to “any lawyers or advocates working this weekend to support immigrants, refugees.” He also said that “At best President Trump’s #muslimban is a misguided, blunt solution to a complicated, nuanced problem” and “at worst, it is a racial attack that only further divides the country.”
1/ 25 years ago, my family and I immigrated to America with less than $300 to our names
— Tony Xu (@t_xu) January 29, 2017
2/ Today, more than ever, DoorDash stands with all people working to come to America in search of a better life
— Tony Xu (@t_xu) January 29, 2017
3/ At best President Trump’s #muslimban is a misguided, blunt solution to a complicated, nuanced problem
— Tony Xu (@t_xu) January 29, 2017
4/ at worst, it is a racial attack that only further divides the country
— Tony Xu (@t_xu) January 29, 2017
5/ It’s already clear that this decision will not do what it intends
— Tony Xu (@t_xu) January 29, 2017
6/ rather it will make life harder for millions of people, including the customers, employees, merchants, and dashers on @doordash
— Tony Xu (@t_xu) January 29, 2017
7/ @doordash is giving free food to any lawyers or advocates working this weekend to support immigrants, refugees. check @ebencuya for more
— Tony Xu (@t_xu) January 29, 2017
Elon Musk
Please read immigration order. Lmk specific amendments. Will seek advisory council consensus & present to President. https://t.co/qLpbsP4lEk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2017
Airbnb
Open doors brings all of US together. Closing doors further divides US. Let's all find ways to connect people, not separate them.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) January 28, 2017
Not allowing countries or refugees into America is not right, and we must stand with those who are affected.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) January 29, 2017
Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone not allowed in the US. Stayed tuned for more, contact me if urgent need for housing
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) January 29, 2017
Lyft
Lyft’s co-founders sent an email to their users Sunday announcing that they were donating a million dollars to the American Civil Liberties Union.
.@lyft will donate $1 million to ACLU pic.twitter.com/NW8AfFIkht
— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) January 29, 2017
Uber
After facing strong pushback from a #DeleteUber social media campaign, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said he was starting a $3 million legal defense fund for any driver affected by the immigration ban. He also took to Twitter saying, “I'm going to use my position on Pres economic council to stand up for what's right.”
1/The travel ban is against everything @Uber stands for. 1000’s of drivers affected - https://t.co/1YXQ5XRnGU
— travis kalanick (@travisk) January 29, 2017
2/ Any driver who can't work because of the ban will be compensated for lost earnings. We have set up $3mm legal defense fund as well.
— travis kalanick (@travisk) January 29, 2017
3/ I'm going to use my position on Pres economic council to stand up for what's right - https://t.co/L6U9LOv3IX
— travis kalanick (@travisk) January 29, 2017
VCs
VCs Fred Wilson, Joanne Wilson, Amy Batchelor and Brad Feld announced that they are doing a $20,000 match for donations to the ACLU.
Box
Donating to the @ACLU today. We cannot let America turn into a closed off, fearful country. We're better than this.
— Aaron Levie (@levie) January 28, 2017
On every level -moral, humanitarian, economic, logical, etc.- this ban is wrong and is completely antithetical to the principles of America.
— Aaron Levie (@levie) January 28, 2017
Those were the days... https://t.co/mFLFLVRnbA
— Aaron Levie (@levie) January 28, 2017
11% of Syrian immigrants to the U.S. are business owners, more than triple that of U.S.-born business owners https://t.co/cU9UMKcG4r
— jack (@jack) January 28, 2017
Salesforce
When we close our hearts & stop loving other people as ourselves (MK 12:31) we forget who we truly are---a light unto the nations. #noban
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) January 28, 2017
Thank you @ACLU @AnthonyACLU. #lovewins
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) January 29, 2017
Stripe
Trump's stated immigration policies would be economically damaging and will in time be seen as morally wrong. https://t.co/HSjJXJdsOq
— Patrick Collison (@patrickc) January 26, 2017
"Foreigners from those 7 nations have killed zero Americans in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil between 1975 - 2015."https://t.co/HftdtA0qj7
— Patrick Collison (@patrickc) January 28, 2017
Etsy
We are a nation of immigrants, and are stronger for it. I oppose excluding people from US based on their nationality or religion, period.
— Chad Dickerson (@chaddickerson) January 28, 2017
Former Nest founder Tony Fadell
ON EVERY LEVEL! https://t.co/P1CHK2ZVMg
— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) January 29, 2017
Google co-founder (and refugee) Sergey Brin
Google cofounder Sergey Brin at SFO protest: "I'm here because I'm a refugee." (Photo from Matt Kang/Forbes) pic.twitter.com/GwhsSwDPLT
— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) January 29, 2017
eBay founder Pierre Omidyar
Turning our backs on people in need is not Christian, not humane, and not American. I'm ashamed of today's cruelty. https://t.co/njQm2pDNoz
— Pierre Omidyar (@pierre) January 28, 2017
Mozilla
The executive order ignores the single truth that we have come to know; talented immigrants have had outsized contributions to the growth and prosperity of the United States and countries around the world. Diversity in all of its forms is crucial to growth, innovation and a healthy, inclusive society.
Amazon
From the very beginning, Amazon has been committed to equal rights, tolerance and diversity—and we always will be. As we’ve grown the company, we’ve worked hard to attract talented people from all over the world, and we believe this is one of the things that makes Amazon great—a diverse workforce helps us build better products for customers.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
