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Software company Palantir has been disinvited from a major LGBTQ tech conference because of public objection to its work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The New York City event, called "Lesbians Who Tech + Allies" and scheduled to take place next month, is sponsored by companies including Google, Bank of America, Verizon and Facebook, and has previously featured speakers such as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former George Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
“Members of our community (the LGBTQ community) contacted us with concern around Palantir’s participation with the job fair,” a representative explained to Fox News, “because of the recent news that the company’s software has been used to aid ICE in effort to gather, store, and search for data on undocumented immigrants, and reportedly playing a role in workplace raids.”
Lesbians Who Tech (LWT) heard concerns from LGBTQ community members and decided to return Palantir's $15,000 sponsorship donation, the group confirmed to Fox News.
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In this Oct. 22, 2018, photo U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surround and detain a person during a raid in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Palantir, co-founded by Peter Thiel, provides software to ICE through a range of different contracts, including one with the agency's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division. That division was reportedly responsible for a number of workplace raids earlier this month, during which dozens of undocumented immigrants were detained for deportation.
Like a number of tech companies facing internal dissent over work with the U.S. government, more than 200 Palantir employees protested its work with ICE in a letter to CEO Alex Karp.
Karp doesn't seem to agree with those employees' concerns, having criticized companies like Google that decline similar U.S. contracts for ethical reasons, calling it a "loser position" in a CNBC interview.
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“This news around the software in addition to the widely publicized raids, inhumane detention centers, and family separation tactics has created heightened concern for various human rights issues,” Lesbians Who Tech said. “LGBTQ issues are human rights issues, and we must stand united on these issues that impact marginalized peoples.”
Fox News has reached out to Palantir for comment on this story. LWT said it did not get a response from Palantir after the decision.
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