| Dear Katy, Detaining and separating families at the border isn't just horrific – for some tech companies, it's profitable. Microsoft is one of those companies. It sells Azure, a cloud computing service that provides everything from file storage to facial recognition, to ICE and makes millions – more than $19 million in active contracts – off of Trump's deportation machine.1 But now Microsoft workers are pushing back. Over 300 signing a letter denouncing the company's cooperation with ICE2. If we join them, we can amplify their call for Microsoft to quit profiting off of the deportation-industrial complex. Tell Microsoft: Cancel your ICE contract and stop enabling Trump's deportation machine. Click here to sign the petition. When the news broke that families were being separated at the border and children were being held alone in cages at secret ICE facilities, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was quick to distance himself. He said he was "dismayed" and "appalled" by the family separation policy.3 But it's hard to take him seriously when Microsoft continues to profit off of ICE. Microsoft's own blog touts that its Azure cloud product has helped to "handle ICE's most sensitive unclassified data" and that it uses "deep learning capabilities to accelerate facial recognition and identification"4. If Microsoft is truly morally outraged by ICE's actions, it must walk the walk and stop profiting off of deportations. That's why CREDO and a coalition of groups, including Color Of Change, Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, SumOfUs, Center for Media Justice, Defending Rights and Dissent, The Nation, and others are calling on Microsoft to cancel its contract.5 Nadella has tried to brand himself as a different kind of CEO. He has actually said "My mission is to put empathy at the center of everything I pursue – from the products we launch, to the new markets we enter, to the employees, customers and partners we work with."6 There is nothing empathetic about ripping apart families or holding them indefinitely in detention. Microsoft must cancel its contract – now. Tell Microsoft: Cancel your ICE contract and stop enabling Trump's deportation machine. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/microsoft-cancelthecontract?t=7&akid=29208%2E12967895%2EKzVNhu Thanks for fighting back, Brandy Doyle, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: - Ali Breland, "Microsoft briefly removes blog post mentioning ICE contract after backlash," The Hill, June 18, 2018.
- Colin Lecher, "The employee letter denouncing Microsoft's ICE contract now has over 300 signatures," The Verge, June 21, 2018.
- Natasha Bach, "CEO Satya Nadella Says He's Against Family Separation But Isn't Ending Microsoft's ICE Contract," Fortune, June 20, 2018.
- Breland, "Microsoft briefly removes blog post mentioning ICE contract after backlash."
- Jessica Corbett, "Demand Grows for Tech Giants Like Microsoft and Salesforce to Cancel Contracts With ICE and Border Patrol," Common Dreams, July 4, 2018.
- James Heskett, "Should CEO Satya Nadella Cancel Microsoft's Contract with ICE?" Harvard Business School, July 3, 2018.
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