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170103 ... Companies must refuse to build Trump’s Muslim registry

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Companies must refuse to build Trump’s Muslim registry 68% We've reached 102,213 of our goal of 150,000. Sign the petition The petition to technology companies reads:

'Refuse to sell any goods, services, information or consulting of any kind to help build or facilitate a Muslim registry.'

Peter Burgess

peterbnyc@gmail.com

18324

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Companies must refuse to build Trump’s Muslim registry

The threat Donald Trump’s presidency poses to Muslims give technology companies a powerful choice to make: will they stand against Trump’s hate or provide the technology and data to enable it?

In November, 'The Intercept' asked nine major technology companies if they would help Trump build a Muslim registry.1 After two weeks, only Twitter had responded with an unequivocal no.

That’s when CREDO partnered with our friends at Muslim Advocates, Color Of Change, MPower Change, Courage Campaign, Democracy for America and more than a dozen other progressive and civil rights groups representing more than 35 million people to demand that Google, Facebook, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Booz Allen Hamilton, SRA International and CGI do better.2

As a result of this public pressure, Google, Facebook, Apple, IBM and Microsoft have all now publicly stated they will not collaborate with Trump’s hate, and pressure is mounting on other companies like Oracle and Amazon to do the same. Now is the time to build on this amazing momentum and pressure other companies to join the public resistance to Trump.

Tell technology companies: Refuse to participate in the creation of a Muslim registry.

Donald Trump’s toxic campaign threatened Muslims, immigrants, people of color, women and LGBTQ people. His staffing decisions to date show that he wants to build an administration that will use the power of the federal government to deliver on those threats.

The creation of a registry of all Muslims in the United States is one of Trump’s most chilling proposals. It harkens back to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and to the Bush-era National Security Entrance-Exit Registration System. Both programs used racist notions of who was a threat to national security in order to racially profile entire groups of people and subject them to government monitoring, surveillance and detention.

With millions of people in this country threatened by Trump, we can’t let corporations that could enable and facilitate Trump’s oppression play the middle. Though many technology companies publicly criticized Trump when he was a candidate, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, IBM and other tech companies' leaders met with him last week.3 In advance of the meeting, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, who has also joined Trump’s transition team, was quoted saying “I plan to tell the president-elect that we are with him and are here to help in any way we can.”4 After the meeting, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said it was “very productive.”5 These leaders’ presence at Trump Tower, which was clearly meant to advance their corporate agendas, provided powerful legitimacy to Trump’s presidency and his hateful agenda.

Defending our safety and our core values as a country means disrupting and resisting Trump on every front. Technology firms have not only extraordinary power, but extraordinary reach into our personal lives.

Twitter, Apple, Google, Facebook and others have promised not to collaborate with Trump’s Muslim registry. Oracle, Amazon, Booz Allen Hamilton and others now have a clear choice: to stand against Trump or to stand with him. Can you join us in demanding they do the right thing?

Thanks for everything you do.

Sam Biddle, 'Of Nine Tech Companies, Only Twitter Says It Would Refuse to Help Trump Build a Muslim Registry,' The Intercept, Dec. 2, 2016. Sam Biddle, 'Following Intercept Report, 22 Organizations Urge Tech Firms to Reject Muslim Registry,' The Intercept, Dec. 12, 2016. David Streitfeld, '‘I’m Here to Help,’ Trump Tells Tech Executives at Meeting,' New York Times, Dec. 14, 2016. David Streitfeld, 'When Trump Meets Tech Leaders, Jobs Will Be on the Agenda,' New York Times, Dec. 13, 2016. David Streitfeld, '‘I’m Here to Help,’ Trump Tells Tech Executives at Meeting,' New York Times, Dec. 14, 2016.

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