UPDATED 00:45 EDT / DECEMBER 18 2016

NEWS

Tech companies unite against creating Trump’s proposed Muslim registry

Tech giants such as Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. have expressed that they are opposed to the idea of building a Muslim registry.

Just days after many of the big names in tech met with President-elect Donald Trump, a string of tech companies have issued statements regarding their disapproval of building a database that would specifically track Muslims living in the U.S. While Trump has said in the past he is in favor of a such a move, there has been some debate as to whether it will actually happen or whether it’s even constitutional.

The tech companies’ reaction, however, has been much clearer. Google’s reaction was forthright, as the company said it would “never” play a part in such a move, adding, “We haven’t been asked, of course we wouldn’t do this and we are glad, from all that we’ve read, that the proposal doesn’t seem to be on the table.”

A Microsoft spokesperson held similar views, saying, “We’ve been clear about our values. We oppose discrimination and we wouldn’t do any work to build a registry of Muslim Americans.” A spokesperson from Apple echoed Microsoft in stating that the company believed “people should be treated the same no matter how they worship, what they look like, who they love.”

Buzzfeed reported that it has been in contact with a spokesperson from Facebook Inc., and the response was much the same as the aforementioned companies. Ride-hailing companies Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. also both said they were against the possibility of sharing information pertaining to the movement of its Muslim-American customers.

Automattic Inc., the parent company of publishing service WordPress, has signed a pledge against such a registry. The pledge, neveragaindottech, is hosted by GitHub and has already amassed a large number of signatories from employees of companies such as Oracle Corp., IBM Corp. and Amazon.com.

This is all moot, of course, if Trump’s plan is merely hot air.

Photo credit: Quinn Mattingly via Flickr

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU