Don’t be fooled: Silicon Valley is still looking after number one.
Tech leaders haven’t shown much care for us before, so why does everyone expect decency now?
There’s a witch hunt in Silicon Valley, and Travis Kalanick was clearly worried he wouldn’t float. Following an American executive order banning visitors from seven countries, most of the tech industry gasped incredulously, then loudly criticised the policy – although most initially spoke out of concern for their own staff, lamenting how difficult it was to find good people. That Silicon Valley skills gap is hard to fill without international visas, after all.
There was genuine concern, of course. Many tech leaders are immigrants, and Sergey Brin showed up at a protest in San Francisco while very publicly donating $2 million to a “crisis fund” supporting the likes of rights campaigners the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
In some cases, such donations were the only way to avoid a PR disaster, as company statements on the ban were picked apart for appropriate fervency. If not deemed genuine or sufficiently passionate, that communications-team-written memo would draw damnation in headlines, as IBM duly discovered with its “embarrassingly weak” response. SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk was battered for his participation in the president’s business council, forcing him to rationalise his membership by claiming he’s taking a seat at the table only to fight the dark side… by working with it.
Then there was Uber, an app I’ve already uninstalled for reasons previously laid out
in this column, so I’m no fan of CEO Travis Kalanick. The ride-hailing app cancelled its surge pricing – when it bumps up fares to draw more drivers to the road during peak times – at the same time that New York taxi drivers went on strike, refusing to take rides from JFK International airport in support of protests there against the travel ban.
Uber was accused of trying to break the strike, which was only an hour long. Had it charged surge pricing, it probably would have been accused of trying to profit from the strike. Either way, rival Lyft took the opportunity to publicly donate $1 million over four years to the ACLU, intentionally or not sparking a witch hunt. Faced with a #DeleteUber campaign that saw 200,000 people shut down their accounts, Kalanick spent the next few days backtracking faster than a Prius reversing away from a dodgy looking fare. Uber spent $3 million setting up a fund to help people hurt by the immigration ban; then Kalanick pledged to bring up the issue to the president’s face at the business advisory council, before the panicking CEO dropped out of the council altogether. Has Kalanick suddenly grown a heart á la
How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Will he now start respecting local laws and treating drivers like humans? Or did the bad PR merely bully him into a politically expedient position? Witch hunts work, it would seem.
I have no complaint about the result, regardless of what’s really in Kalanick’s heart. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling to see fear in the eyes of an arrogant CEO, and anyone who supports a ban against people based on where they’re born or what religion they practise is worthy of outrage. But why do we expect tech companies in particular to be the ones to step forward and take action? No-one is switching to Coke over Pepsi because of politics, or cancelling trips to Disneyland because the CEO’s statement on immigration was too strong or not strong enough – indeed, I haven’t a clue what those companies think about the executive order. Disney remains on that business advisory council, but hasn’t made headlines.
Corporate activism may well do good work, and the ACLU certainly appreciates the donations, regardless of the motivation. But caring about people starts before it’s politically necessary, and shouldn’t depend on being a smart PR move. These firms don’t care about you – they just want your data and credit card details, not your well-being.
If Silicon Valley is only on the side of decency because it’s easily bullied, we’re in a precarious position – that witch hunt can always change direction, after all.