More than 20 organizations that use Salesforce, including Greenpeace, Fight for the Future, and Free Press, have signed an open letter
More than 20 organizations that are Salesforce customers, including Greenpeace, Fight for the Future, Free Press, IfNotNow, Jobs with Justice and OpenMedia, have signed on to an open letter released today calling on CEO Marc Benioff to drop the company’s contract with Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and cut all ties with the US government’s immigration enforcement agencies following widespread reports of human rights abuses.
“We are nonprofits, startups, and businesses that are Salesforce’s customers. The tools that Salesforce provides helps us achieve our mission. However, we are absolutely appalled that Salesforce is providing assistance to government agencies that are violating human rights. We cannot, in good conscience, ignore this issue,” reads the letter.
It continues, “If every company that has any kind of contract with these immigration agencies, immediately cut their contracts, it would make a huge impact and create enormous political pressure for these human rights abuses to end. Mr. Benioff, we know you really personally care about these issues and we implore you to listen to your conscience and show that you really care about immigrant families. As Salesforce customers, we urge you to cut your contract with Customs and Border Protection. We will not be quiet until you do.”
“Marc Benioff needs to realize that he can’t just write a check and tweet some excuses and expect this to go away,” said Jelani Drew of Fight for the Future, who helped coordinate the open letter, “Families are being torn apart. Human rights are being trampled. Salesforce has a contract with one of the agencies committing these atrocities. They have the power to do something about it. They need to decide right now which side of history they want to be on.”
The open letter comes after more than 100,000 people signed petitions calling on Salesforce, Microsoft, and other large tech companies to drop their contracts with ICE and Border Patrol, echoing demands from hundreds of employees at those companies. Protests have taken place at Salesforce HQ in San Francisco, and CEO Marc Benioff has been flooded with tweets calling on him to do the right thing.
Beyond tech companies, public pressure is growing nationwide for institutions to cut their ties with ICE and Border Patrol. Thousands of students spoke out and protested at Northeastern University, and one of the nation’s largest consulting and management firms, McKinsey and Company, already cut their ties, stating that they “will not, under any circumstances, engage in any work, anywhere in the world, that advances or assists policies that are at odds with our values.”
Fight for the Future and other groups plan to continue pushing for all large tech companies to sever their ties with government agencies that violate human rights.
Historic move could lead to a landslide of Republican support for resolution to overturn unpopular FCC repeal
Today, Representative Mike Coffman (R-CO) announced that he will become the first GOP member of the House of Representatives to sign a discharge petition in an attempt to force a vote on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to reverse the FCC’s unpopular repeal of net neutrality. With polls showing that Republican voters overwhelmingly want their lawmakers to support the CRA, the move could unleash a landslide of GOP support for the resolution to restore strong protections while Congress debates any potential future legislation.
While the CRA only requires a simple majority to pass, Rep Coffman has also chosen to introduce his own net neutrality legislation, which could do more to undermine net neutrality than protect it. The bill is largely symbolic, given that it will never reach the 60 votes it would need to pass the Senate.
Fight for the Future plans to crowdfund billboards targeting any lawmaker who engages in hypocrisy by supporting symbolic net neutrality legislation without first signing on to the CRA.
The group issued the following statement, which can be attributed to deputy director, Evan Greer (pronouns: she/her):
“Rep Mike Coffman is a net neutrality champion for signing the discharge petition and supporting the CRA. His bill has zero chance of passing this year, but he’s shown real political courage by supporting the CRA to restore strong net neutrality protections while he and Congress debates alternative solutions.“
These open Internet protections should have never been taken away in the first place. Any other lawmaker who wants to support net neutrality must follow Rep Coffman’s lead by signing on to the CRA before supporting any other legislation. Any lawmaker who cosponsors Coffman’s bill without signing on to the discharge petition is doing the bidding of Comcast and Verizon and will be seen as an enemy of the free and open Internet.
The details are important when it comes to net neutrality. Internet users demand strong protections that prevent ISPs from censoring us, throttling our connections, or jacking up fees for no reason. Rep Coffman signing on to the CRA is a reminder that this is not a partisan issue outside of Washington, DC.
The rest of the House of Representatives should read the writing on the wall and take a stand for real net neutrality before they are forever remembered as the corrupt politicians who let the Internet die.”
Congress must pass CRA to reverse illegitimate decision to repeal Open Internet Order
After stonewalling, dodging FOIA requests, ignoring letters from victims of identity fraud, blocking law enforcement investigations, and dismissing concerns from lawmakers, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has finally admitted that his agency’s public comment system was utterly broken during its recent high profile net neutrality repeal proceeding.
“Ajit Pai’s response to concerns about widespread fraud and abuse during the net neutrality repeal process was always that it didn’t matter that the comment system was broken, since he was planning to ignore your comments anyway,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, “But the FCC is legally required to maintain a functional system for the public to have input into their proceedings. And now Ajit Pai has finally admitted that his agency failed to do that. Congress must do their jobs pass the CRA to reverse the FCC’s illegitimate decision, and ensure there is proper oversight in the future so that the public has a voice in proceedings that impact our most basic right and the future of the Internet.”
Fight for the Future was among the first to uncover the massive number of fraudulent comments in the FCC docket that used real people’s names and addresses without their permission. The group launched Comcastroturf.com, a tool to help Internet users check whether their identity had been used to file a fraudulent comment at the FCC, and organized a letter from dozens of people whose names and home addresses were used.
Fight for the Future and other net neutrality groups are planning to continue intense activism targeting House lawmakers over the summer, demanding that they listen to their constituents, sign the discharge petition and vote for the CRA to restore net neutrality protections for all.
Two weeks ago, the strongest state-level net neutrality bill was gutted in a committee hearing by Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, which led many observers to believe the bill was dead thanks to the power of giant telecoms like Comcast and AT&T. But the move sparked an unprecedented public outcry from Californians, who made thousands of phone calls, flooded social media, and crowdfunded more than $14,000 in order to put up a billboard in Chairman Santiago’s district. Today, in a win for the open Internet, Santiago announced that all of SB 822’s core protections are being restored and that he’s now a co-author of the bill.
This can only be described as a massive win for the diverse coalition that supported SB 822.
Online grassroots efforts drove Santiago back to the table to negotiate with Senator Scott Wiener, the author of SB 822. Based on the reports, we won back all of the key protections that had been ripped out of the bill, including the essential ban on harmful zero-rating schemes like AT&T’s zero-rating of its video sites and services, while counting all other video against users’ artificially low data caps.
Given these developments, Fight for the Future has put the Santiago billboard campaign on “pause.” If these reports are confirmed once the final text of the bill is released, the funds raised for the billboard will be used to support activism focused on passing SB 822 through the Assembly. If other California Assembly members attempt to block the bill on behalf of big donors like AT&T, they can be targeted with billboards as well to ensure their constituents know what they’re doing.
Fight for the Future issued the following statement, which can be attributed to Deputy Director Evan Greer (pronouns: she/her):
“We appreciate Assemblymember Miguel Santiago’s change of heart. This should be a lesson to other lawmakers: don’t mess with net neutrality unless you’re prepared to feel your constituents’ wrath. Today’s news shows the power of the Internet to overcome business as usual and win real victories for the public.
The protections that have been restored to SB 822, based on today’s reports, are essential for preventing Internet providers like AT&T and Comcast from abusing their monopoly power to control what we do online by turning the internet into a playground they control. The protections against discriminatory zero rating schemes are especially essential for low-income Californians, who are disproportionately affected by low data caps, and who would be forced to experienced a second-class Internet where their ISP chooses what they are most likely to see, how they stream video, and where they get their news.
Strong net neutrality protections are essential for a functional democracy. The open Internet is one of the most important tools we have for challenging injustice and tyranny. The stakes are high and what happens in California will have an impact on Internet users everywhere. We will continue to fight tooth and nail to ensure that SB 822 passes the Assembly with all key protections intact.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, July 3, 2018 Contact: Evan Greer, 978-852-6457, press@fightforthefuture.org
A growing coalition of grassroots advocacy groups are demanding that Microsoft, Salesforce, and other large tech companies drop their contracts with immigration enforcement agencies like ICE and Border Patrol. Amid disturbing reports of widespread human rights abuses, more than 100,000 people have already signed on to petitions launched by Center for Media Justice, Color of Change, Demand Progress, Defending Rights and Dissent, Fight for the Future, Free Press, The Nation, Presente.org, SumOfUs.
The groups’ demands echo those led by employees at Microsoft, Salesforce, and Amazon whom have signed on to open letters saying that they do not want to be part of building software used to target immigrant families. The organizations plan to escalate their efforts in the coming days, including in-person protests and a petition delivery. See links to the separate petitions below.
“The trauma of family separation will run deep for the children and families involved and big tech companies play a huge part in that. Technology can be used to protect or violate human rights. Companies like Microsoft and Salesforce have chosen to use their services to violate them all while saying they care about human rights. It’s hypocrisy. That’s why we won’t back down until all tech companies drop their contracts with ICE,” said Jelani Drew, Kairos Fellow at Fight for the Future, who launched this petition.
“Microsoft must honor the demands of its own employees and thousands of people across the country calling on the company to drop its contract with ICE. Otherwise, it will forever be remembered as the tech company that powered Trump’s brutal policy of family separation and detention. The Trump Administration’s attack on children and families is unconscionable and Microsoft’s failure to act in the face of these glaring human rights abuses is beyond disturbing. History is calling, and it’s asking Microsoft to take a side,“ said Reem Suleiman, senior campaigner at SumOfUs, who launched this petition.
“Microsoft is approaching a day of reckoning. They’ve gained millions while hundreds of families have lost their children. The company must now make a choice - either help ICE continue to destroy families, or take action and cancel their contract. In the face of such inhumanity there is no other way,” said Steven Renderos, Organizing Director at Center for Media Justice, who launched this petition.
“Corporations supporting the inhumane policies of the Trump Administration have lost their moral compass and will be held responsible for the violence and suffering they profit from. No company should be in the business of caging families. On this 4th of July, Presente members have declared their Independence from criminal or cowardly corporations who assist the President’s immigration racket.” Said Matt Nelson, Executive Director, Presente.org (he/him) who launched this petition.
“If Microsoft is as shocked and dismayed as they claim to be by ICE agents forcibly separating children from their parents at the border, then they have a moral obligation to take action and divest themselves from the ‘mission critical’ services they provide to ICE,” said Reuben Hayslett from Demand Progress, he launched this petition.
“We’re seeing that employees inside tech companies are pushing for the products they build to be used in ethical ways for people at the border and around the world. Microsoft employees are not accepting executives’ efforts to downplay the company’s contracts with ICE and are demanding that their work not contribute to the operations of this agency,” said Yana Calou from Coworker.org, which provides education for employees raising their voices at work.
“Tech companies contracting with ICE and CBP, including Microsoft, Salesforce, Thomson Reuters, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, and Dell are all complicit in and profiting from a violent and murderous mass incarceration and deportation scheme,” said Scott Roberts, Senior Campaign Director at Color Of Change which launched this petition. “No child belongs in a cage, tent city, or juvenile detention center at any time or in any place. The act of separating and detaining families would not be possible without the massive bureaucratic and logistical machine behind it. It is not enough to simply speak symbolic words against these acts. Companies like Microsoft must take action in the one way that will make an actual impact, canceling their contracts. We will hold any corporation accountable for their role in advancing Trump’s violence against our communities, and we will not stop they until heed the call of thousands of tech workers and people directly impacted by this crisis.”
“Corporate complicity in human rights abuses can’t be excused, it must be exposed and stopped. Our members are eager to hold tech companies accountable for profiting off contracts with ICE, and to call out the hypocrisy of companies that decry family separation while helping the Trump administration enforce draconian and inhumane immigration policies,” said Sue Udry, Executive Director of Defending Rights and Dissent, who launched this petition.
Several other organizations have already begun preparing their own campaigns echoing these calls.
