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Microsoft is funding DACA opponents in Congress while warning employees that discussing the donations with one other may constitute 'harassment'. It also bars H1-B and DACA employees from information sessions about the PAC. I wrote a story about it here: idlewords.com/2019/07/micros…
Why is Microsoft paying off politicians who want its own employees deported, while simultaneously making a big show of defending DACA in court? It appears to come down to a massive, $10B Pentagon contract for the "war cloud", for which Microsoft and Amazon are finalists.
I obtained an internal Yammer post from Microsoft president @BradSmi in which he makes promises to employees about how the PAC will do better, but refuses to shut it down. I have transcribed it and posted it here: idlewords.com/brad_smith_pac…
The post is basically an admission that Microsoft has been giving to right-wing extremists (for example, the PAC gave $6,000 in March and April to a Senate candidate whose campaign page pledges to stop migrants "by any means necessary.")
After reaching out to Microsoft for comment, I learned that neither @satyanadella nor @bradsmi review PAC donations before they are made. The company would not tell me the names of the people who decide where Microsoft PAC gives its money.
So to recap: if you are a DACA employee at Microsoft, the company donates to politicians who want you deported, tells you you can't ask your managers or coworkers about this funding, refuses to reveal who makes the decisions, and says the president and CEO are helpless spectators
At the same time, @BradSmi is very publicly boasting on his Twitter feed about how he has your back, not mentioning the knife sticking out of it
I'm so angry about political donations from big tech companies to bigots that it's driving me to journalism.
Here is @BradSmi just hours ago praising the House for passing a bipartisan immigration law after his company gave over $46,000 to its opponents. I just don't understand this transparent duplicity. We have the receipts!
