Tech CEOs are blasting Trump’s immigration order, but here’s one who’s doing more

Many US technology leaders have publicly condemned Donald Trump’s immigration order, but Airbnb’s co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky has gone further, tweaking his product to cater to refugees. In a tweet on Sunday, he announced that the company is providing free housing to refugees and anyone not allowed into the US.

While tens of thousands of people marched in US cities against President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting entry into the country for travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations, Chesky took to Twitter to voice his discomfort with the entire affair. He also tweeted a link to a page where people can volunteer to list their properties to host refugees for free.

 “Not allowing countries or refugees into America is not right, and we must stand with those who are affected,” Chesky tweeted. “Open doors bring all of US together. Closing doors further divides US. Let’s all find ways to connect people, not separate them.”

In doing so, Chesky became one of many technology leaders to publicly condemn the immigration order, including the CEOs of Google, Netflix and Apple.

Reuters reported that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings called it “a sad week” and said that “it is time to link arms together to protect American values of freedom and opportunity.” In a letter sent to his employees, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “Not a policy we support and we have reached out to the White House to explain the negative effect on our coworkers and our company.”

According to Bloomberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a memo to his employees, “It’s painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues. We have always made our view on immigration issues known publicly and will continue to do so.”