This is a measured and well-thought out response. I'm not really sure where the detractors of Github here think the "cancelling" should stop. Should everybody start building additional backdoors in their software that shuts it down if it detects some sort of "bad" thing is being created, or possibly hook it up to a Twitter feed and shut down if people are saying bad things about the software operator?<p>Github emphasized that they don't know what is being done with the on-premises, firewalled software they sold to ICE. What about the guy delivering pizza to ICE headquarters -- is he cancelled too? He doesn't know if the "must separate the children at the border" team or the "let's arrest the leaders of this slave trafficking ring" is eating the pizza.<p>At least to me, some of the other protests in regards to ICE have been even more obviously incoherent, like the demand for Wayfair to stop selling clean beds for detained people to sleep in.
This internal letter was leaked last night on Twitter, via Fight for the Future. It seems putting it on the official GitHub blog is a response to that leak: <a href="https://twitter.com/evan_greer/status/1181745056698572802" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/evan_greer/status/1181745056698572802</a>
>Like many Hubbers, I strongly disagree with many of the current administration’s immigration policies, including the practice of separating families at the border, the Muslim travel ban, and the efforts to dismantle the DACA program that protects people brought to the U.S. as children without documentation.<p>Obama did the same crap, and here a CEO is blaming the current admin.<p>If this CEO had a clue about what is going on, he would realize that the PARENTS are in the wrong by bringing their kids. Thus, because of child predators they have to be separated. Obama even said so.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4QniWO4_Yw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4QniWO4_Yw</a>
How is donating $500k in response to making $200k from their sale a relevant response? Is this their way of bribing people to quiet down? Seems twisted.
They say that $200k doesn't make a difference to their bottom line, then come up with this convoluted argument for taking it anyway. Disappointed.
A very reasoned and balanced response by Nat. And interesting that they are making a larger-than-revenue-received donation to causes that offset the evils of ICE.
My response would have been: immediately push a ToS change + update to enterprise server so that it leaks all of ICE's code under MIT license (this would be mandated in the ToS change). Time it so the code is already public before they have time to react. Fuck ICE. I'd honestly throw away my career and all of GitHub's enterprise revenue to screw these guys over.
If Github really cared about this then they should have forbidden the selling of the contract in the first place. The Trump admin's policy has been the US's policy for the last 20+ years.
Seems like the attempt to fix this (donating $500k) isn't going to work. So they've lost that money from the donation, I wonder how more they'll lose from people dropping them over this and from employees quitting. Seems like that $200k isn't worth it, I wonder why they don't just drop ICE or say they won't allow them to renew in the future.
This is really unfortunate. The problem isn't law enforcement per se. The problem is selective disregard for humans under pressure.<p>Many government organizations under current administration are deliberately hemorrhaging law enforcement or bringing in policies through internal memos (without congressional approval) to prey on the vulnerable.<p>I would've hoped companies like Github would take a stand and call out these unfair enforcements. Once they do that, they can then continue on to serve the contract. However, keep highlighting how your customers are using perverted interpretations of law to treat humans badly.
Bye, Github!<p>I'm quite sure concentration camps were originally more "wholesome" than murdering endless legions of innocent people... How on earth can you in one sentence talk about child trafficking being bad and then know that children are being abused by the same fucking institution that's supposed to protect them?<p>I shouldn't be shocked, but I'm kind of hurt probably from my own naivete, Github ain't any different than anywhere else-- all hail, profits before people.<p>Canceling my private repos later today.