Dive Brief:
- About 300 technology sector leaders sent an open letter Thursday to express their lack of support for Donald Trump's campaign for President of the United States.
- The letter said Trump would be a "disaster for innovation."
- It instead calls for a candidate who embraces the ideals that "built America’s technology industry, including freedom of expression, openness to newcomers, equality of opportunity, public investments in research and infrastructure and respect for the rule of law."
Dive Insight:
Tech sector leaders are concerned over Trump's comments internet policies and his comments about women and immigrants.
The group used the letter to call instead for a leader who supports diversity and progressive immigration policies, stating that 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. They also want a leader who will protect an open Internet, stating that Trump proposes "shutting down" parts of the Internet as a security strategy.
The letter was signed by a broad range of tech-focused inventors, entrepreneurs, engineers, investors, researchers, and business leaders, including Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and CEO of Slack; Aneesh Chopra, president of NavHealth and the former U.S. CTO; Terry Howerton, CEO of TechNexus; Paul Jacobs, executive chairman of Qualcomm Inc.; David Karp, founder and CEO of Tumblr; and Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of Yelp, among others.
Bigger names, such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, were not present on the list.
Posted on Medium, the letter said Trump’s vision "stands against the open exchange of ideas, free movement of people, and productive engagement with the outside world that is critical to our economy — and that provide the foundation for innovation and growth."
