About a year ago, presidential candidate Donald Trump declared that he would look to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, with the statement made a month after he said that if he would win, he would require Muslims in the country to register in a database.
A year after and having secured an unexpected victory over Hillary Clinton, concerns that Trump will actually move ahead with a Muslim registry are growing.
Tech Companies Against Trump's Muslim Registry
In separate emails, BuzzFeed News acquired responses from three major tech companies regarding their stance on Trump's Muslim registry.
"We haven't been asked and we would oppose such an effort," a spokesperson for Apple said, claiming that the company believes people should be treated in the same manner no matter their religion, appearance or relationships.
A Google spokesperson also said that the company will not be participating in building such a Muslim registry, with Uber answering the question with a simple "No".
Facebook's stance in the matter took a controversial turn when a company spokesperson accidentally sent an email to BuzzFeed News on the matter, which was meant to be for a colleague. The email suggested that the company should remain silent on the matter, but as the message was published, Facebook was forced to issue a statement that it will not be participating in the creation of a Muslim registry.
Microsoft is another tech company which has disavowed any involvement in Trump's proposal, with Microsoft PR chief Frank X. Shaw claiming that it will not do any work to help build Muslim database.
Other companies that have made the same stance against the Muslim registry are Twitter, Lyft, Medium and Automatic.
Employees Also Against Trump's Proposal
The issue regarding Trump's plan for a Muslim registry has recently united over 600 workers in the tech industry from various major companies. The employees have signed a "Never Again" pledge that has them vowing to steer clear from participating in the formation of a Muslim registry, on fears of another genocide.
Employees have promised to make a difference within their companies regarding the matter, including pushing for reducing data collection and retention to the minimum to make it harder for Trump's government to target individuals based on their religion or ethnicity.
This goes to show that the rejection for Trump's proposal spans across entire tech companies, from the workers all the way to the top executives. Fortunately, as a Google spokesperson said, the plan for a Muslim registry does not seem to be on the table, at least for now.
