February, 18 2019, 11:00pm EDT
Human Rights Organizers Encourage Employees to Blow the Whistle on Unethical Tech
New SpeakOut.Tech campaign asks employees to keep shedding light on Silicon Valley’s shady side. Organizers are crowdfunding ads using big tech’s own platforms to target their employees with whistleblower information
WASHINGTON
Today, Fight for the Future launched a website and video ad campaign that directly calls on employees of big tech companies to blow the whistle on unethical uses of technology. This campaign comes as a response to the increasing number of tech employees organizing and calling out their companies for powering human rights abuses. Organizers are also crowdfunding to run ads, using Silicon Valley's own platforms to micro-target employees of the biggest tech companies.
Hundreds of tech workers expose corruption and abuses of power by Silicon Valley companies. When big tech companies like Google bid on government surveillance contracts or when Salesforce provided the technical foundation for the violation of human rights, tech employees were not letting them get away with it. Employees speaking out have led to urgent and important national debates about privacy & race, immigration, and government contracts.
The SpeakOut.Tech campaign features:
- Resources for employees choosing to shed light on unethical tech
- Direct links to SecureDrop whistleblowing platforms
- A compelling video that speaks directly to tech workers and calls on them to be the first line of defense against unethical uses of technology
- A crowdfunding effort to run ads micro-targeted to reach employees at the biggest tech companies
"Tech workers are the first line of defense, they've been speaking out but we need to let them know we have their back. There are a small handful of people who have the power to blow the whistle on technology that could be devastating for human rights or help an authoritarian government. We need to reach those people and show them they are not alone, and that we'll support them if they speak out" said Jelani Drew, campaigner at Fight for the Future.
Fight for the Future is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling Internet outrage into political power to win public interest victories previously thought to be impossible. We fight for a future where technology liberates -- not oppresses -- us.
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