Twitter Speaks Out Against Trump’s Immigration Actions
It seems even Twitter, Donald Trump’s favorite means of communication, has gone against him over his recent orders barring Muslim immigrants and refugees from entering the United States. Organizations, communities and individuals from across the globe protested Trump’s signing of a new executive order on Friday that temporarily bars all refugees from entering the country. Trump also signed an order that restricts the citizens of seven Muslim countries from coming to America. Even though President Trump has said that this particular order was designed to prohibit radical terrorists from entering the United States, his decision will also temporarily put a complete blanket ban for all refugee trying to enter the United States of America. Like many other tech companies, Twitter, President Trump’s favorite means of communication, also protested Trump’s actions by posted this on their official account on Sunday:
Twitter is built by immigrants of all religions. We stand for and with them, always.
— Twitter (@Twitter) January 29, 2017
Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, also posted a series of tweets on his personal account, denouncing the President’s decision.
The Executive Order's humanitarian and economic impact is real and upsetting. We benefit from what refugees and immigrants bring to the U.S. https://t.co/HdwVGzIECt
— jack (@jack) January 28, 2017
11% of Syrian immigrants to the U.S. are business owners, more than triple that of U.S.-born business owners https://t.co/cU9UMKcG4r
— jack (@jack) January 28, 2017
Trump has made Twitter his favorite means of communication from the start of his election campaign. Given Twitter’s open disapproval of Trump’s recent decision, this raises the question of whether Twitter will consider blocking “@realDonaldTrump,” Trump’s official Twitter handle, if Trump’s policy will ban Twitter employees from working in the United States.
Jack Dorsey had previously described his feeling about Donald Trump as “Complicated.” Instead, he discreetly diverted to stating that the election had put Twitter in the spotlight.
“I feel very proud of the role of the service and what it stands for. It’s had such a spotlight on it through his usage and through the election.”
Dorsey isn’t the only tech CEO who has protested Trump’s decision. Many other leaders of the tech industry, the likes of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Lyft CEO Logan Green, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, expressed their dissatisfaction over President Trump’s Refugee Ban and Immigration Restriction.
One of the main reasons why Trump’s decision has been criticized so much is because many deem it to be biased against Muslims. The sentiment was accurately expreseed by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Albright, a vocal critic of the president’s decision to bar Muslim immigrants, was a refugee herself when she came to the U.S. from Czechoslovakia with her family in 1948 to flee the communist government’s persecution. Albright points out that “by specifically targeting Muslim-majority countries for these immigration bans, and by expressing a clear preference for refugees who are religious minorities,” there was no doubt that President Trump’s decision was biased against Muslims.
“And when one faith is targeted, it puts us all at risk.”
Trump signed the orders on Friday, January 27. His decision indefinitely bars all Syrian Refugees from entering the U.S. He has also put a 120-day bar on refugees from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Furthermore, he had ordered no visa to be issued to the citizens of these countries for the next 30 days. Trump has said that they will resume admission of immigrants from these countries after the procedure of vetting has been deemed sufficient by the secretary of State, the secretary of Homeland Security and Director of National Intelligence. Trump justified his decision as follows.
“We don’t want to admit the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. We only want to admit those that support our country and love, deeply, our people.”
I promise that our administration will ALWAYS have your back. We will ALWAYS be with you! pic.twitter.com/D0aOWhOH4X
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2017
Another order passed by President Trump on Friday was concerning the rebuilding of the military, which according to Trump would be accomplished by building new planes, new ships, tools, and resources. Trump made the following statement:
“As we prepare our budget request for Congress, our military strength will be questioned by no one and neither will our dedication to peace. And we do want peace.”
[Featured Image by rvlsoft/Shutterstock]
