President Donald Trump’s revised order that seeks to ban travel from a slew of Muslim-majority countries isn’t exactly seeing an outpouring of love and friendliness from among the tech community. Airbnb, Lyft and 56 other tech companies have together filed an amicus brief against the new order, seeking a temporary stay on it.
Actually, the amicus brief has been filed in support of a lawsuit filed by the state of Hawaii. And it is the state of Hawaii which wants the order temporarily restrained. While the state probably has its own reasons for wanting the order kept from going into action, the group of companies that form part of the amici believe that it will be bad for business.
As per the brief, the order will:
result in constitutional injuries to employees and customers of Amici. These injuries would inflict significant and irreparable harm on U.S. businesses and their employees, stifling the growth of the United States’ most prominent industries.
Apart from Airbnb and Lyft, Warby Parker, Udacity, Square, Twilio, Postmates and Pinterest also form part of the group of companies to have filed this brief.
Speaking on the topic, Airbnb Head of Policy Chris Lehane said:
Barring people from entering our country because of where they’re from is wrong. Our community’s mission is to allow anyone to belong anywhere, and we will take a stand when we see policies that conflict with our values
In case you are wondering, here is how the two bans differ from each other: The first sought to restrict travel from seven Muslim-majority nations. On the other hand, the current proposal aims to restrict travel from just six: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Syria, fpr a period of 90 days. It also seeks to bar refugees from the U.S. for 120 days.
This ban is certainly a lot lighter than the last one. Instead of a permanent ban, it seeks to restrict travel on a temporary basis. It also removes Iraq from the list of countries placed under the ban. Indeed, Trump might even be looking to save face with this sheared down version of his previous executive order. However, the tech community is clearly not having any of that.
