When should a tech company refuse to build tools for the government?
by Olivia Solon in San Francisco from Technology | The Guardian on (#3T03E)
Silicon Valley workers are revolting against lucrative contracts with US immigration and defense agencies
During the second world war, IBM supplied the Nazis with technology used to help transport millions of people to their deaths in the concentration camps.
The American technology company leased punch-card machines through a German subsidiary for the purpose of tabulating a population census, which allowed the Nazis to identify and track the movements of Jews all the way to the gas chambers. In 1937, Hitler awarded a medal to the company's CEO, Thomas Watson, in recognition of his services to the Third Reich.
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