Tech Bigwigs: “Trump Would Be A Disaster For Innovation"

145 executives, engineers, researchers, and investors, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Vint "father of the internet" Cerf, and CEOs of Slack, Box, Yelp, and Tumblr say "Trump would be a disaster for innovation."

More than 100 prominent tech industry leaders published an open letter on Thursday opposing Trump's candidacy for president.

The letter reads like a who's who of tech industry names. Among the signatories were Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Vint "father of the internet" Cerf, the CEOs of Slack, Box, Yelp, the founders of Reddit, Medium, Twitter, and Wikipedia, and deep-pocketed investors such as Vinod Khosla and Chris Sacca.

"We believe in an inclusive country that fosters opportunity, creativity and a level playing field," the letter reads. "Donald Trump does not."

Posted on Medium Thursday morning by Katie Jacobs Stanton, the CMO of Color Genomics (and former vice president of global media at Twitter), the letter states that "Trump would be a disaster for innovation."

"His vision stands against the open exchange of ideas, free movement of people, and productive engagement with the outside world that is critical to our economy — and that provide the foundation for innovation and growth."

Endorsed by 145 engineers, researchers, executives, and investors, the tech leaders argue that a Trump presidency would undermine freedom of expression, restrict the kind of immigration that drives entrepreneurship, and stymie investment and job growth.

"We embrace an optimistic vision for a more inclusive country, where American innovation continues to fuel opportunity, prosperity and leadership," the letter states.

"[It] happened organically," Stanton told BuzzFeed News via Twitter DM. "A number of people felt really passionately about this issue and shared with their peers and colleagues."


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