According to an anonymous poll obtained by New York Times technology reporter Nathaniel Popper, the majority of Coinbase employees support the new anti-activism policy recently enacted by CEO Brian Armstrong.
While the mainstream media and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs keep berating Armstrong for failing to appease his woke employees, it appears the company’s silent majority wants to keep things apolitical.
Taking a stand against wokeness
Armstrong stirred a controversy with his Sept. 27 blog post, in which he publicly announced a major shift in the company’s culture.
Coinbase employees are now prohibited from discussing political candidates or social justices causes that are not directly linked to the company’s mission:
“Creating an open financial system for the world is already a hugely ambitious mission, and we could easily spend the next decade or two trying to move the needle on global economic freedom.”
This sets apart the $8 bln cryptocurrency exchange from other tech giants in the likes of Google and Facebook that are embracing social activism with open arms.
Armstrong taking the apolitical stance will allow the company to avoid the “internal strife” that the aforementioned companies are facing.
In early June, for example, Facebook employees staged a virtual walkout to protest the social media giant's decision not to take down President Donald Trump’s posts related to protests in Minneapolis.
Sparking fury from the left
As reported by U.Today, Armstrong’s decision attracted vitriol from radically left-wing entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.
Former CEO Twitter Dick Costolo claimed that the Coinbase CEO deserved “a firing squad.”
Left-leaning media outlet Vice published a scathing article about Coinbase, slamming it as a “libertarian political project”, after Arsmrong offered dissenting employees generous severance packages:
“Armstrong’s decision to offer exit packages to employees uncomfortable with his company’s new focus on creating a safe space for libertarianism is, undeniably, a political act undermining worker autonomy.”
There is almost another camp that believes that many companies will follow Coinbase’s suit by distancing themselves from politics.
Arman Shirinyan
