Mikey Campbell
Apple, Google and Uber on Friday issued official statements regarding President-elect Donald Trump's proposed Muslim registry, each saying they would not assist in building or providing information for creating such a database.
In statements obtained by BuzzFeed News, the three tech giants were unsurprisingly opposed to the idea of generating and maintaining a list of users based solely on their religious beliefs.
"We think people should be treated the same no matter how they worship, what they look like, who they love. We haven't been asked and we would oppose such an effort," an Apple spokesman said.
Apple has long been a vocal advocate of equality, publicly pushing for diversity in the workplace and beyond.
A spokesperson from Google was even more emphatic, saying, "In relation to the hypothetical of whether we would ever help build a 'muslim registry' - 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."
Facebook and Microsoft offered similar sentiments earlier this week, saying they would not participate in the building of a Muslim registry.
Amazon and Oracle, however, declined repeated requests for comment on the matter. The CEOs of both companies were in attendance at Trump's high-profile tech summit on Wednesday, at which Amazon chief Jeff Bezos was said to be particularly concerned about Chinese relations. Apple CEO Tim Cook was also present and sat just two seats away from the President-elect, next to Trump's Silicon Valley evangelist Peter Thiel.
Oracle's refusal is perhaps more understandable, as CEO Safra Catz just yesterday joined Trump's transition team. That said, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who was not invited to the summit, is among a cadre of business advisers who are scheduled to meet with and directly advise Trump. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also part of that group.
During his campaign, Trump proposed building a registry of all Muslim Americans, potentially with the help of tech companies and other services providers, in an apparent bid to curb what he framed as "radical Islamic" terrorism on U.S. soil. Since then, however, both Trump and his transition team have seemingly distanced themselves from the initiative.
Christine McKee
Appleinsider Staff
William Gallagher
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11 Comments
This database remains very unlikely to be created.
But if it does then every loyal American reading this post should register for it. I certainly will.
Muslim American are Americans and we need to defend our fellow Americans, through the dilution of an unconstitutional database if necessary.
It is our governments decision whether to track and register individuals. My expectation and hope is that the intelligence authorities within our government will soberly evaluate such a regressive plan.
Corporations, businesses and individuals pay taxes for this service. They should not be made to take part in a Big Brother operation. Unless, national security needs are displayed and proper checks and balances have been established. Thus far the jury is out on the value of such a program, in light of previous attempts such as the Japanese internment camps and the lack of value and damage it did to our reputation as a beacon of freedom and democracy.
i am glad to know that these important companies put privacy and personal freedom ahead of some people's wrong headed and jingoistic plans to satiate our need to be protected from 'the others'.
So they announced they won't participate in a database no one is proposing? Such a strange announcement.
I certainly hope this is not true. This would be an atrocity on par with the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
True it hasn't been announced. However, the writing is on the wall.
Considering, President-Elect Trumps statements and clear rhetoric on the campaign trail l and since, along with his suggested and in some cases selected Secretarial, Ambassordor and National Security appointments(proposed) give a very clear signal of his intention, once seated as President.