Tech CEOs have leverage. Are they willing to lead?
Tech rank-and-file are showing the way
Joshua is an Machine Learning Researcher in San Francisco, working at a startup called Exa. He used to work at Google. He’s also one of the signatories of the ICEout.tech letter.
For the past few weeks, videos of ICE murdering multiple American citizens — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — have flooded our social media. The authoritarian game plan relies on convincing us that horrors like this are inevitable, that there’s nothing we can do. History shows us that as each pillar of society falls under the sway of this plan—government, military, and police, but also communities, civic groups and businesses—the regime comes closer to total control. But each pillar also presents an opportunity to turn the tide; knock one out and the entire authoritarian project becomes increasingly fragile. Minneapolis residents are stepping up and resisting, organizing watches and escorting kids to school. Religious leaders and school teachers are standing guard for their neighbors against unlawful kidnapping. But what can those of us working in technology, the most powerful industry in this country, do to help in this critical moment?
Today, the Trump regime relies on tech — both the operational capability and the signal that this economic juggernaut’s compliance sends to the rest of society. Since its start in 2003, ICE has relied on tech companies like Amazon for cloud storage and services, and on Palantir for foundational operational tools. But last year, that relationship ramped up and it continues to accelerate. The federal government explicitly paid Palantir $30 million to build its new AI-driven surveillance platform called “ImmigrationOS.” And now, the Department of Homeland Security, the department for which ICE serves as enforcement, contracts with tech companies from Alphabet to Anduril, from Dell to IBM, as well as smaller firms like Clearview AI and Cellebrite. The agency is actively spending federal money on facial recognition software, spyware, and many other forms of technology built by designers and engineers, greenlit by tech executives, and funded by VCs across the industry.
As we work tirelessly towards highly capable AI systems, we need trustworthy and accountable leaders at the helm who will use them responsibly. AI capabilities continue to increase at an astonishing pace, and everyone working in frontier labs should be concerned of that power falling into the wrong hands. Now would be a good time to ensure the checks and balances of our government function, especially at a moment we overwhelmingly agree that they are in serious danger. ICE’s use of lethal force with absolute immunity surely must be the moment when the line has been crossed.
Since the beginning of Trump 47, it’s been clear that executives and employees in tech are far more afraid to speak up than during Trump 45 — out of fear of retaliation from Trump or from our bosses. Yet with the events of this week, enough people are starting to speak up that the administration does not have the bandwidth to punish all of us. Already as more tech leaders demand basic constitutional guarantees and an end to ICE violence, the backlash from high profile officials looks increasingly pathetic.
Tech industry loudmouths like Thiel and Andreessen may be cheering on the Trump administration’s descent into autocracy. But the good news is that the tech workforce at large has remained committed to respect, science, and democracy. We want our country back. And we can take action now to reclaim it. We can speak out when we can and where we can. We can find others in our workplaces and communities who feel just as strongly and invite them to add their voices to the growing chorus of dissent. We can consider what our specific companies can do to take a stand against the regime, and get specific about our own personal red lines. We can organize our workplaces. We can say no more.
We can join hundreds of other tech industry professionals—engineers and CTOs, marketers and data scientists, designers and product managers—by signing our names to the ICEout.tech letter and taking a visible step toward changing the future—while the eyes of the world are on us. With this letter, we are publicly demanding that tech executives call the White House and demand that ICE leave our cities, cancel all company contracts with ICE, and speak out publicly against ICE’s violence. No more tech for ICE.
Former tech executive and the respected author of Radical Candor, Kim Scott, presciently wrote about the importance of visible public actions by people with influence for The New York Times back in October. From her time living and working in Russia, she saw that when the powerful started silencing themselves, authoritarianism was able to claim its final hold. She reminds us that “The people in Silicon Valley who have made fortunes still have a platform and a voice. Now is the time to exercise them, and to stand together in solidarity.” If you work in tech: she is speaking to you.
That photo is of a buncha billionaires who've already made their beds. What if instead we convince their employees to quit en-mass? Make it easy. Give them a better option. Start a bunch of consortia to advance open-source alternatives to their products. They already exist. Get VC backing from EU, Canada, India, all the countries that want to disconnect from US idiocy. Recruit on the street outside their offices. Recruit in red states in the US where the economy is already crap. Do to the US tech industry what the EU is doing to the US defence industry. Starve the beast.