Seattle tech giants Amazon and Microsoft issued statements this weekend in response to the outrage and protests over George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.
https://twitter.com/amazon/status/1267140211861073927
Protesters gathered in cities across the U.S. in response to the death of Floyd, who died after being held down by a white Minneapolis officer during an arrest. The officer was charged with third-degree murder in the case on Friday.
Demonstrators broke the windows of an Amazon Go store in downtown Seattle during a protest Friday evening. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan placed a 5 p.m. curfew for downtown Seattle on Saturday as the protests continued.
https://twitter.com/scottm00re/status/1267155072812630016
Bloomberg reported Sunday that Amazon adjusted delivery routes and “scaled back typical operations” in cities where protests occurred this weekend.
ACLU responded to Amazon’s statement:
https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1267181557195907078
Leaders in Seattle and in the tech community are among those speaking out. “The pain and emotional trauma caused by the racism and violence we are witnessing toward the black community has a long reach,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote in an Instagram post directing users to this essay, “especially if you’re a manager or leader.”
Here’s Amazon Web Services cloud chief Andy Jassy:
https://twitter.com/ajassy/status/1266847181891203072
Microsoft posted remarks from CEO Satya Nadella to employees on Friday.
“We need to recognize that we are better, smarter and stronger when we consider the voices, the actions of all communities, and you have my assurance that Microsoft will continue to advocate to have all those voices heard and respected,” Nadella said, adding that employees should “have empathy for those who are scared and uncertain, and join me and everyone on the senior leadership team, in advocating for change in our company, in our communities, and in society at large.”
Update: Here’s another statement from Nadella on Monday:
https://twitter.com/satyanadella/status/1267492314584236032
Here’s former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer:
https://twitter.com/Steven_Ballmer/status/1266583619427905542
Here’s Melinda Gates’ comments:
https://twitter.com/melindagates/status/1267280808064069635
https://twitter.com/melindagates/status/1267280808764530689
https://twitter.com/melindagates/status/1267280809465049089
Seattle real estate company Zillow Group issued its own statement Saturday: “Racism has no home here.”
https://twitter.com/Rich_Barton/status/1266912307608645635
Here’s a statement from Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile:
https://twitter.com/TMobile/status/1266821760852414470
Sherrell Dorsey, an entrepreneur from Seattle and founder of The Plug, is tracking tech company responses. Other giants including Apple, Salesforce, Twitter and others made statements.
https://twitter.com/Sherrell_Dorsey/status/1266872548240785410
https://twitter.com/Sherrell_Dorsey/status/1267135893116256256
Leaders in the Seattle startup community are also sounding off:
https://twitter.com/eugenio_pace/status/1266767638652313603
https://twitter.com/Andrewmd5/status/1267139607230943232
https://twitter.com/Andrewmd5/status/1267142717550628864
https://twitter.com/calbucci/status/1267110059256934401