zlacker

I sometimes wonder why the world is in such a pity state. A lot of improvements seem obvious, but nothing gets done while a lot of those things are not really opposed by anybody. Why can multi-national corporations essentially exploit people in poorer parts of the world? Why can authoritarian regimes run freely and profit from exploiting people or attack democratic institutions?

I think this line of thinking (whether applied to corporations or people) is a reason. It can be applied very, very broadly and essentially result in doing nothing if a corporation/country/whatever doesn't not hold up to your ethical standard and while formally complaining about some violation. The company doesn't care and you can feel better. There's some truth in "actions speak louder than words".

There's a point where some kind of real action is required to have an impact. And it will more often than not result in a situation that's financially worse. One can't usually follow ethical standards and get the maximum profit at the same time. It's obvious and one should calculate with it. The freedom to choose also implies responsibility to choose.

I am not totally idealistic, some things would result in economic suicide and some would not really help the cause. But one can weigh them and I am not convinced that Github runs a huge risk by denying ICE service. Although I have to admit that I am not sure what ICE is doing wrong. I am not an American. But I really don't like this style of reasoning where the negative financial consequence is just accepted as a reason without really questioning whether it's justified. Amazon already banned the police from using Rekognition, so it can't be total lunacy.

>>Leande+(OP)
> I have to admit that I am not sure what ICE is doing wrong

ICE is pretty bad at following US law and pretty good at being cruel to everyone in their path

- ICE routinely detains and deports citizens and legal residents (guess their skin color) [1]

- ICE routinely abuses those placed in their care and doesn't punish known abusers [2] [3] [4] [7]

- ICE is happy to hurt its law enforcement practices to round up more immigrants [5]

- under Obama ICE was actively ignoring court orders [6] this is much worse under Trump

- ICE asylum officers (i.e. lawyers and experts) have reported extensive cruel and illegal practices [8]

[1] https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-citizens-ice-20180...

[2] https://theintercept.com/2018/10/11/adelanto-ice-detention-c...

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/17/us/sexual-assault-ice-det...

[4] https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/im...

[5] https://www.texasobserver.org/ice-hsi-letter-kirstjen-nielse...

[6] https://www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/ice-and-border-p...

[7] https://www.aclusandiego.org/cbp-child-abuse-foia/

[8] https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-11-15/asylum-off...