It’s reportedly Google’s largest crisis
campaign to date
Google has created a $4
million crisis fund for those affected by President Donald Trump’s immigration
ban, according to a report from USA Today. The $2 million fund can be matched by up to $2 million
from employees, with all donations going toward four organizations: the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Immigrant Legal Resource Center,
International Rescue Committee and UNHCR, the UN agency responsible for
protecting refugees. According to USA
Today, the humanitarian campaign is Google’s largest ever.
The
fund was announced in a memo from CEO Sundar Pichai, and confirmed to USA Today by a Google spokesperson. Pichai
criticized Trump’s ban in an internal memo over
the weekend, saying that it is “painful to see the personal cost of this
executive order on our colleagues.” The executive order, which temporarily bars
immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, affects at least 187 Google
employees, according to Pichai’s memo.
Google
co-founder Sergey Brin also joined protests against the executive order at San
Francisco International Airport on Saturday, though he told The Verge that he was doing so “in a personal
capacity.” Brin’s family fled the Soviet Union in 1979 to avoid persecution;
Pichai is also an immigrant from India.
Several tech executives
have spoken out against Trump’s executive order — some
more forcefully than others. Over the weekend, Netflix CEO Reed
Hastings said that “Trumps actions... are so un-American it pains us all.” On
the more mealy-mouthed end of the spectrum, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said
simply that he was “concerned” about the order.
Other
companies have offered more concrete support. Lyft said it will donate $1 million over the next four years to
the ACLU, while Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said in
a tweet that the company will provide “free housing to refugees and anyone not
allowed in the US.”
In
a statement to USA
Today, Google said: “We’re concerned about the impact of this order
and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their
families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the US.
We'll continue to make our views on these issues known to leaders in Washington
and elsewhere.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment