Hoffman, a major Democratic donor, said in an op-ed in the San Francisco Standard on Thursday that too many tech leaders have “divested themselves of the responsibility to speak out against the administration’s excesses.”
“January’s tragic events in Minneapolis should end that posture,” he wrote. “We leaders in tech and business have power — economic, social, platform power — and sitting on that power right now is not good business. It’s also not neutrality. It’s a choice.”
Tensions have been running high in Minneapolis since 37-year-old Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal immigration agents Saturday.
His death came amid protests over the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer just weeks earlier.
“I’ve been encouraged in recent days that more Silicon Valley leaders have spoken out to condemn the Minneapolis killings and the policy choices that led to them,” Hoffman said. “It’s a good start to something America needs much more of right now.”
Several major tech leaders have voiced concerns in the wake of Pretti’s shooting. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman criticized ICE for “going too far” in a message to employees obtained by The New York Times.
In a post on X, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei underscored the “importance of preserving democratic values and rights at home” amid the “horror” in Minnesota.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a note to employees obtained by Bloomberg that he was “heartbroken” over the events in Minneapolis and suggested it was “a time for deescalation.”
“We in Silicon Valley can’t bend the knee to Trump,” Hoffman added in Thursday’s op-ed. “We can’t shrink away and just hope the crisis will fade. We know now that hope without action is not a strategy — it’s an invitation for Trump to trample whatever he can see, including our own business and security interests.”
Check out the full report at TheHill.com.
