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upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for SoyCow1337.

GitHub will keep selling software to ICE, leaked email says

Microsoft-owned GitHub will renew a $200,000 contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, despite concerns about the Trump administration's policies, according to a leaked email.

GitHub CEO Nat Friedman said in an internal email leaked to tech activist organization Fight for the Future that ICE purchased a license for a GitHub enterprise server in 2016, and that the purchase recently came up for renewal. In the email, Friedman said the company doesn't have an agreement to provide professional services to ICE, and it "has no visibility into how this software is being used, other than presumably for software development and version control."

[...] Friedman describes the $200,000 ICE contract as "not financially material" and says in the email that GitHub will donate $500,000 to nonprofits that support immigrant communities affected by Trump administration policies.

After the email was leaked, GitHub posted the full text in a blog post Wednesday morning. "At GitHub, we believe in empowering developers around the world," Friedman writes in a note. "We also believe in basic human rights and treating people with respect and dignity."

Providing software to ICE has become a flashpoint in the tech industry, as employees question how their work contributions will be used by the United States government. Hundreds of GitHub coders have signed on to a petition calling on Microsoft to stop providing services to ICE or they will "take our projects elsewhere."

Original Submission

1. "upstart" - https://soylentnews.org/~upstart/
2. "GitHub will keep selling software to ICE, leaked email says" - https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/9/20906213/github-ice-microsoft-software-email-contract-immigration-nonprofit-donation
3. "in an internal email" - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ljH74APGOTVl_dxs-H_f5M4YuvMUBfdq/view
4. "posted the full text" - https://github.blog/2019-10-09-github-and-us-government-developers/
5. "a flashpoint" - https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/20/17485238/ice-contract-microsoft-motorola-dell-hp-enterprise-deportation
6. "signed on to a petition" - https://github.com/selfagency/microsoft-drop-ice
7. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=36743

printed from SoylentNews, GitHub will Keep Selling Software to ICE, Leaked Email Says on 2024-04-23 07:12:37