US tech firms say they will not help govt. build registry of Muslims, if asked
Apple, Google, and Uber join list of tech companies refusing to build Muslim registry, 16 Dec 2016
Apple, Google [part of Alphabet], and Uber have all broken their respective silences on whether they would participate in helping build a Muslim registry for the incoming Trump administration, BuzzFeed reports... [An] Apple spokesperson said, “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.”
...Google...[said], “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...that the proposal doesn’t seem to be on the table.” Meanwhile, Uber responded to BuzzFeed with a terse “no”... Twitter...[was the first to say] it would never participate in such a project... Facebook...[also issued] a statement saying it had not been asked, nor would it agree, to helping build a Muslim registry... Microsoft...said..., “We oppose discrimination and we wouldn’t do any work to build a registry of Muslim Americans.”
Ride-hailing company Lyft, which like Uber could hypothetically be asked to hand over user travel data, said today it would refuse to participate with the government if it were asked for such data or other tools to build a Muslim registry, according to Inc. So too did publishing company Medium... And yesterday, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg signed a fast-growing industry pledge on behalf of his company Automattic, which oversees WordPress.com... One notable exception here has been Oracle...[which] has in the past counted the National Security Agency as a client.