吃瓜大本营

In late November, as the country absorbed the election results, a group of techies met in the San Francisco offices of the payment start-up Stripe. They were there to discuss their role in resisting the assault on civil liberties that the president-elect had promised to unleash, with a specific focus on using their technical abilities to protect vulnerable populations.

Trump had made clear he intended to use the awesome capacities of modern-day technology to target groups he deems undesirable. On the campaign trail, he vowed to create a database to monitor Muslims in the country. Since taking office, he has ordered his administration to vastly at the border to ensnare immigrants. Invasive, warrantless cell phone searches at the border have .

As representatives of some of the most powerful companies in Silicon Valley, whose profits depend on the collection of data about ordinary consumers, the technologists who gathered at Stripe鈥檚 headquarters were painfully aware of the ways their livelihoods could contribute to Trump鈥檚 plans. They wanted no part of it.

Leigh Honeywell, who at the time worked as a security manager at Slack, left the meeting pondering the best way for tech workers to influence the policies of their own companies. Thus was born . In consultation with civil society groups, Honeywell and a number of drafted a pledge not to contribute in any way to efforts by the administration to create a Muslim registry or to deport immigrants. On the day it was released, it had roughly 60 signatures. By the time it closed to signatures it had nearly 3,000.

鈥淲e refuse to build a database of people based on their Constitutionally-protected religious beliefs. We refuse to facilitate mass deportations of people the government believes to be undesirable,鈥� the pledge reads, pointing to the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and the internment of Japanese Americans as precedents for what can happen as a result of policies like Trump鈥檚. The pledge also commits its signatories to work within their companies to minimize practices that facilitate ethnic and religious targeting, promote the implementation of end-to-end encryption, and raise awareness of the dangers associated with the collection and retention of sensitive data.

The timing of the pledge underscored a significant chasm within Silicon Valley. The day after its launch, executives from 10 major companies 鈥� including Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook 鈥� attended intended to explore how they might work with the incoming administration. 鈥淲e wanted to change the conversation around this meeting,鈥� Honeywell explains. 鈥淎ll these tech leaders were awkwardly capitulating to Trump, but tech workers were having none of it.鈥� (Honeywell has since left Slack to join the ACLU as a staff technologist.)

The activism proved effective. With public pressure mounting on tech CEOs to take a stand, it was only a matter of days before Apple, Google, and Uber all they would refuse to contribute to the construction of a Muslim registry.

Of course, concerns about the oppressive capabilities of technology didn鈥檛 start with Trump. Particularly since Edward Snowden鈥檚 disclosures first began in 2013, the precariousness of our privacy has come into clear focus, with the public鈥檚 misgivings steadily growing 鈥� both about the government鈥檚 enormous powers and the exploitation of for corporate profit. But with Trump鈥檚 election, those concerns have swelled. Thanks in no small part to efforts like the 鈥淣ever Again鈥� pledge, we鈥檝e seen a new willingness on the part of the tech community to examine the ethical implications of its work and consider efforts to restrain it.

This has resulted in various efforts to organize tech workers and consolidate their influence. The meeting that spawned the Never Again pledge was the inaugural convening of , an initiative that organizes meetups across the country of techies interested in countering Trump鈥檚 agenda and supporting organizations that could benefit from their skills. 鈥淪o far, we have been totally silent and acquiescent,鈥� Tech Solidarity founder . 鈥淲e want people to be afraid of the political power of their employees.鈥� On the heels of a successful organizing campaign of Silicon Valley security guards, engineers are now formally unionizing.

Company executives are paying attention. A few days after employees at and staged walkouts over Trump鈥檚 proposal to ban immigration from a number of predominantly Muslim countries, nearly 100 companies 鈥� including Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix, and Twitter 鈥� to challenge the ban in court. Airbnb went a step further, to refugees and other travelers barred from entering the United States while the travel ban was still in effect. Around the same time, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick from Trump鈥檚 advisory board amidst internal and consumer protests against his participation.

Technologists are joining the fight for justice in other venues, too. This year鈥檚 , an annual gathering of tech activists in Spain, was the largest yet. It included the participation of companies like Twitter and Facebook, and hosted discussions about using tech to deter police violence, support women鈥檚 rights, and empower immigrant communities. A March session of the Internet Engineering Task Force, a body that documents technical standards for the internet, on the human rights implications of internet protocols 鈥� the rules that make up the infrastructure of the internet and govern, for example, the security of your web-browsing habits.

Technologists aren鈥檛 just playing defense 鈥� the last few months have also seen a marked in the development of . Initiatives like the and make it easier for people to engage with their congressional representatives. Apps are being developed to , Trump鈥檚 impact on human rights, and Trump-affiliated businesses. These kids of apps aren鈥檛 new, and not all of them will stick, but there is no doubt that the political winds are having a creative impact.

Meanwhile, the use of encrypted communications by the general public is surging out of fear of politically motivated surveillance 鈥� including among . Signal, the most secure of messaging apps, that its downloads in the first quarter of 2017 were nearly double those of the same period last year. A deluge of content 鈥� including from mainstream outlets like the and 鈥� is educating concerned readers on how to up their security practices. (You can read tips from the ACLU here and here.)

To be clear, the dangers posed by technology have by no means been neutralized. But it鈥檚 heartening that important elements of the tech community are starting to openly reckon with the inherent dangers of the infrastructure that they have built. 鈥淭ech plays such an ever-present role in people鈥檚 lives,鈥� says Honeywell. 鈥淣ow that tech workers are more aware of their power as employees, I think we鈥檙e going to see a lot more activism.鈥�

This post has been corrected to reflect the fact that 2017 was not the first year Twitter and Facebook attended the IFF.