California, US (BBN) - Google is joining other technology companies in supporting its employees and other people alike affected with Trump administration’s move to restrict immigrants and refugees in the United States.
After Donald Trump signed an executive order to restrict immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries, Google has created a $2 million crisis fund that can be matched by up to $2 million in donations from employees, reports mashable.com.
This is the company's largest humanitarian campaign to date.
The fund is for four organisations: the ACLU, Immigrant Resource Center, International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps.
Several other Google executives have also individually donated to ACLU and other organizations, though they haven't been identified in the report.
The move comes after Google CEO Sundar Pichai strongly objected Trump’s immigration ban in an internal memo.
Co-founder Sergey Brin also participated in a protest at San Francisco International Airport over the weekend, although in personal capacity.
Trump’s strong stand on how the United States should perceive immigrants, something which he had repeatedly shared during his presidential campaign, has received strong opposition from tech executives.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and many others have strongly voiced their objections to Trump’s executive order either internally or before the public.
In the meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is receiving strong financial support from celebrities, tech executives, and people alike to fight back the executive order.
The ACLU challenged the executive order and won an emergency stay last week.
As of early a few hours ago, ACLU said it had received over 350,000 online donations, totalling over $24 million over the weekend, in what is more than its five years' worth of online giving.
Ride-sharing service Lyft has also pledged to donate $1 million to ACLU.
"We stand firmly against these actions, and will not be silent on issues that threaten the values of our community," the company, which counts billionaire and member of the executive committee of Donald Trump's transition team as one of its investors.
Its rival, Uber also announced $3 million donation, albeit after receiving heat from customers, many of whom showed their disappointment by deleting the app.
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