Techies pen open letter against CAA We — engineers, researchers, analysts, and designers unflinchingly condemn the government and the brutality it enacts on citizens

Pro and anti views are extensively expressed on mediums like WhatsApp, FB

New Delhi, Dec. 27: A grouping of Indian and Indian-origin professionals working with tech giants like Google, Uber, Amazon and Facebook have written an open letter against the new religionbased citizenship law and the planned national register of citizens, terming them as “fascist”.

They urged business leaders like Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella and Mukesh Ambani to “take a stance and publicly denounce the fascist acts by the Indian government”.

The letter by ‘TechAgainstFascism’ on online publishing platform Medium also urged the leaders to refuse to shut off the Internet at the “government's whim” and to ensure that content moderation is not skewing pro-government.

This comes at a time when thousands of Indians across the country are protesting the amended citizenship law and the planned National Register

THEY HAVE urged business leaders like Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella and Mukesh Ambani to “take a stance and publicly denounce the fascist acts”.

of Citizens (NRC). On several occasions, these protests turned violent and have left around 20 dead and several injured in clashes with the police.

WhatsApp and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have played a key role in providing a platform to people to voice their opinion against and in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

“We — engineers, researchers, analysts, and designers - of the technology industry, unflinchingly condemn the fascist Indian government and the brutality it enacts on citizens. The state-sponsored brutality against protesters must stop immediately,” the letter said.

These employees — who claim to be located across San Francisco, Seattle,

London, Israel and Bengaluru — added that the opinions expressed are their own and do not reflect those of their employers.

“While portraying India as marching towards Digital India' and courting tech company business investment, the regressive government views the Internet as a political tool for suppression of citizen dissent, while utilising the same networks to organise and spread fake content,” they alleged.

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TECHAGAINSTFASCISM