Silicon Valley CEOs try to calm techies after Trump win

NEWDELHI: America’s Silicon Valley has never seemed so rattled before. CEOs and top executives of technology companies such as Apple, eBay, LinkedIn and Microsoft have written to their workforces, requesting them to look past president-elect Donald Trump and expressing belief that people are inherently good.

Others such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have not been so discreet. He said via his social media account that he and his company have to find new ways to work together.

That the CEOs were compelled to communicate with employees after the election reflects how rattled Silicon Valley is.

“This has been an historic and emotionally-charged election,” eBay’s Devin Wenig wrote along with Box’s Aaron Levie, adding it was an “emotional rollercoaster of toxic rhetoric” and it might have resulted in “leaving many of you with strong feelings”. A woman wearing a hijab at San Diego State University told police two men had pulled up next to her, mentioned Trump and Muslims, then robbed her of her belongings An Indian in the US, Manik Rathee, described on Twitter verbal abuse hurled at him by a group of men at a gas station: “Time to get out of this country, Apu!" A woman in Delaware reportedly heard a group of men discussing how they would not have to deal with African American people any longer, and one of them used racist threats against her Messages were found painted on walls such as “Black Lives Don’t Matter and Neither Does Your Votes” in North Carolina, and a swastika and “Make America White Again” in New York Senior New York Times journalist Fernanda Santos wrote of how she was told for the first time in her life to “speak English” while she was talking to someone on the phone in Spanish. Civil rights leaders told a news conference in Washington they were hearing of an increase in bullying incidents against children from racial and religious minority groups.