USA: Tech firm staffers refuse to work for Trump

On 14 December Reuters reported that approximately 100 employees of American technology firms have pledged not to aid President-elect Donald Trump create a database of people according to their religion or to deport people en masse. The signatories to the open letter are employed by Google, Twitter and other firms.

The authors of the letter refer to the remarks Trump made about deporting immigrants and Muslims during his campaign. They compare his proposals to the Holocaust or to the interment of American citizens of Japanese origin during the Second World War.

"We are choosing to stand in solidarity with Muslim Americans, immigrants, and all people whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by the incoming administration’s proposed data collection policies. We refuse to build a database of people based on their Constitutionally-protected religious beliefs. We refuse to facilitate mass deportations of people the government believes to be undesirable.," the pledge reads.

Trump, during his campaign, clashed several times with the bosses of tech firms from Silicon Valley with whom he disagreed on questions of immigration and Government controls over the flow of information. The leading representatives of those firms met last week with Trump in New York to clarify their stances.