Hootsuite Drops ICE Contract After Employee Backlash

Topline

Social media company Hootsuite said Thursday it will no longer do business with U.S. immigration authorities after an employee tweeted the Vancouver-based firm signed a contract with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement this week despite internal protests.

Hootsuite

Key Facts

Sam Anderson, a senior training specialist at Hootsuite, tweeted Wednesday that Hootsuite, a social media marketing platform, signed a three-year deal with ICE over the opposition of more than 100 employees, revealing for the first time that Hootsuite was working with .

Anderson argued the company, especially as a B Corporation, shouldn’t be taking money from an agency with a history of separating families and that’s been hit with a whistleblower complaint alleging its performed forced hysterectomies on detainees.

“Even more heartbreaking is that multiple members of our Mexico City support team have relayed their personal experiences being targeted and harassed by ICE and our leadership team chose to push this deal through anyway,” she tweeted.

Anderson’s Twitter thread garnered considerable pushback with 7,300 retweets and 19,700 likes and calls from social media managers to stop using Hootsuite entirely.

In response to the backlash, Hootsuite reversed course and said in a statement Thursday morning, “Due to the attention around this particular case we can confirm that Hootsuite has decided not to do business with the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.”

But the status of the contract is unclear because records indicate that a company called FCN, Inc. already signed a $508,832.48 contract on September 18 to provide “Hootsuite licenses” to the agency, Motherboard first reported. (Hootsuite did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.)

Crucial Quote

CEO Tom Keiser said in a statement that a committee formed to consider the ICE contract developed a set of “objective guidelines” and decided to go forward, but the backlash “spurred additional dialogue.”

“Over the past 24 hours, there has been a broad emotional and passionate reaction from our people and this has spurred additional dialogue. We have heard the lived experiences from our people and the hurt they are feeling. The decision has created a divided company, and this is not the kind of company I came to lead. I—and the rest of the management team—share concerns our people have expressed,” Keiser said.

Key Background

Tech workers at companies such as Amazon, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, Github and Wayfair have urged their employers to stop doing business with ICE. Internal protests gained steam in 2018 after President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy caused family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border.