Why PledgeNoHate.tech?
PledgeNoHate.tech is a promise to technology consumers and customers, especially those whose work is deeply connected to democracy and social justice, that the business with which they are working won’t simultaneously enable extremist organizations with the same applications and/or services.
Consumers and customers, including impact organizations such as nonprofits and educational institutions, are increasingly looking to technology application, platform, and service providers to demonstrate and lead with values, including Corporate Social Responsibility. While the technology industry, at large, has mostly taken an “agnostic,” approach to its sales and service, this has led to sometimes high-profile breakdowns between the stated values a business articulates to its employees and customers, and sales by the same business to organizations that foment division, anti-democratic actions, discrimination, and erosion of civil liberties and rights in the United States.
PledgeNoHate.tech is rooted in three key goals for the technology industry:
1) Giving businesses an articulated backstop against extremism in the United States by leveraging the Southern Poverty Law Center Extremist Groups list: an academically rigorous, external evaluation of the organizations in the United States that are creating outcomes that contribute to democratic backsliding and the erosion of civil liberties and rights.
2) Giving consumers and customers a promise that the technology business from which they are acquiring is paying attention to the outcomes that their product and/or service creates - especially as related to fomenting extremism in the United States.
3) Giving participating businesses a community of peers, rewarding them for making this promise to their customers, and building stronger understanding within the business leader community of how and where extremism represents itself.
About PledgeNoHate.tech
PledgeNoHate.tech is an initiative that gives voice to businesses in the United States that stand against extremism.
PledgeNoHate.tech is a membership that requires participating businesses to evaluate their sales, renewal, and customer success engagements with their customers, specifically for customer accounts that match those on the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Extremist Groups list. Taking the Pledge means taking actions across these areas that will omit organizations on the Extremist Groups list from further engagement with the participating business, either in the initial sales process or at contract renewal.
PledgeNoHate.tech is also a grassroots movement that is led by businesses who will voluntarily stand up against extremism, and visibly demonstrate this commitment via a renewable annual badge. It is a promise to prospective customers – especially those concerned with preserving rights, liberties, and democratic participation – that they won’t be acquiring applications or services from businesses who are also enabling detractors from these goals.
The SPLC Extremist Groups list provides an academically rigorous, externally-evaluated source of truth as to the organizations in the United States that are actively creating outcomes that erode democracy and rights. While there are many organizations in the United States that study extremism, SPLC is the only which maintains an active list. By leveraging it for PledgeNoHate.tech, it alleviates participating businesses from the need to make internal evaluations of these same organizations while creating a common starting point for future growth and iteration.