In the wake of public backlash, Hootsuite has decided to terminate their contract with the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The social media and marketing company was called out by an employee on Twitter, Sam Anderson aka @Samelaanderson, who tweeted, “Been debating talking about this publicly because I don’t want to get fired, but it seems like the cat’s already out of the bag so whatever: yesterday Hootsuite signed a three-year deal with ICE. Over 100 employees have been extremely vocal in their opposition to this deal since it first came to light in June and it went through anyway.”
Anderson’s thread touched upon employees’ frustration and anger at the deal, including Mexican Hootsuite employees being harassed and targeted by ICE. They also touched on the company’s surface level commitment to inclusivity as a B Corporation, while making deals with a government agency that relentlessly pursues human rights violations.
since it first came to light in June and it went through anyway. ICE’s repeated human rights violations are, to put it lightly, seriously at odds with our publicly stated values around DE&I, the Movement for Black Lives, and our purpose to champion the power of human connection.
— Sam | abolish the police (@samelaanderson) September 23, 2020
That we are eagerly accepting money from an organization that is allegedly subjecting its female detainees to forced hysterectomies, that has a documented history of locking children in cages, that tears families apart and destroys lives is devastating and disgusting in a way
— Sam | abolish the police (@samelaanderson) September 23, 2020
This makes it abundantly clear that Hootsuite puts profits above people. This is a company that I’ve been overjoyed to be a part of for more than five years and I am so disgusted that this is who I turned out to be working for.
— Sam | abolish the police (@samelaanderson) September 23, 2020
But what’s easy and what’s right rarely agree, and I don’t want to be complicit in this. I need to do more than just refuse to work with them.
— Sam | abolish the police (@samelaanderson) September 23, 2020
And for the record, I’m a damn good product trainer with consistently high CSAT scores quarter after quarter. If I get fired for speaking out about this it will be purely retaliatory in nature.
— Sam | abolish the police (@samelaanderson) September 23, 2020
The thread quickly went viral, earning nearly 10K retweets and 26K likes. Hootsuite quickly reversed gears and put out a statement saying they were no longer working with ICE.
We typically do not make public facing statements about specific customers or contracts. However, due to the attention around this particular case we can confirm that Hootsuite has decided not to do business with the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
— Hootsuite (@hootsuite) September 24, 2020
Hootsuite CEO Tom Keiser followed up with a longer statement, saying “Over the last 24 hours there has been a broad emotional and passionate reaction from our people and this has spurred additional dialog. We have heard the lived experiences from our people and the hurt they are feeling,” Keiser said. “The decision has created a divided company, and this is not the kind of company I came to lead. I—and the rest of the management team—share the concerns our people have expressed. As a result, we have decided to not proceed with the deal with ICE.”
A message from our CEO, Tom Keiser pic.twitter.com/T1aU0o5HhS
— Hootsuite (@hootsuite) September 24, 2020
Good for Anderson for risking her livelihood to call out her company’s gross behavior. And good for Hootsuite, I guess, for listening and actually changing. The company made the deal via a third-party company, FCN, which then provided ICE with licenses to Hootsuite software. This begs the question, how active is ICE on social media? Are they posting so frequently that they need to schedule their tweets? Does ICE have a social media manager, and if so, why? ICE currently has over 450K followers, so someone must be interested.
Anderson responded with the following:
This has been an overwhelming experience and I’m so thankful for the shared hurt and outrage. It’s not ideal, but if this is ultimately how we hold companies to account and make them do better then it’s good to know that we have a mechanism for it.
— Sam | abolish the police (@samelaanderson) September 24, 2020
(via TechCrunch, featured image: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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