Two weeks ago, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) acquired GitHub, the internet’s largest source code repository, and GitHub’s developers are already threatening to take their open-sourced projects elsewhere. GitHub developers threaten to completely abandon the site due to Microsoft’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contract. A letter was signed by over five dozen contributors requesting Microsoft to cut ties with ICE.
Many tech companies are now facing serious heat for their work on behalf of ICE. Lately, there has been mass upheaval over the Trump administration separating families at the U.S/Mexico border.
The letter drafted and signed by the GitHub developers reads:
“As members of the open source community and free software movement who embrace values of freedom, liberty, openness, sharing, mutual aid, and general human kindness, we are horrified by and strongly object to the Trump administration’s policies of detainment, denaturalization, deportation, and family separation as carried out by ICE.”
More than a hundred internal Microsoft employees have also taken a stand against the company and are asking the company to drop its current $19.3 million ICE contract. The employees hope that Microsoft will take an ethical stand and will put children and families above company profits.
CEO Responds to Public Request for Microsoft to Cut Ties With ICE
On Tuesday night, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella responded to the allegations of ties with ICE by sending out a company-wide email. Nadella claims that the company is not working with the United State government on any specific projects that have to do with separating children and families at the border.
>> YouTube to Allow its Content Creators more Monetization Options
With what’s currently happening at the border, it makes sense why employees would want the company to take a public moral stand, but it seems the ICE contract has to do with other legal matters.
“Our current cloud engagement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is supporting legacy mail, calendar, messaging and document management workloads,” Nadella wrote.
The CEO did not vow for Microsoft to cut ties with ICE but did make his stance known on his views of the policy being implemented at the border.
Nadella’s email reads:
“Like many of you, I am appalled at the abhorrent policy of separating immigrant children from their families at the southern border of the U.S. As both a parent and an immigrant, this issue touches me personally. This new policy implemented on the border is simply cruel and abusive, and we are standing for change.”
Was Nadella’s email enough to keep the developers on GitHub? We shall see soon.
Featured Image: twitter
