An ever-evolving list of brands I boycott and why as well as the last date I supported them. I'll continue to update this list as I learn more and detach myself from the firm grip of big tech and corporatism.
I recognise, as a tech worker, that we've created quite the hydra, so detaching ourselves becomes much more complicated than it ever should be. I also recognise that like the capitalistic umbrella tech operates under, we are somewhat stuck using certain technologies (for example, I am writing this here on GitHub, which refuses to drop ICE as a contract.).
I am not perfect and recognise this can be seen as moralistic. I am doing this to share information that may help influence your decisions. They may not. That's up for you to decide.
My hope is to encourage everyone to be more thoughtful in how they vote with their wallets.
- FEC Donations: Search individual contributions made to political campaigns.
- ProPublica COVID-19 Bailot Lookup: Look up who received loans from COVID-19 bailout.
Jeff Bezos is slated to be the world's first trillionaire. He repeatedly exploits labour while being the richest man in the world. Amazon has lied to their employees about COVID, asks employees to donate sick days, and gouged hand sanitizer prices during the pandemic.
Late 2018 I let me Prime membership expire and stopped making purchases since then [<100USD purchases a year since; mostly pandemic essentials I could not access elsewhere.]
Chick-Fil-A has donated millions to anti-LGBTQIA+ groups. Despite "dropping donations," you could argue that it was a move to compete with Popeye's chicken more than meaningful systemic chance.
Driscoll's exploits its migrant farm workers who make $3.50/hour for grueling physical labour and are pressured to work 7 days a week. During the pandemic, they were pressured to keep COVID cases silent.
2018 The last time I purchased Driscoll's berries.
Facebook helped to get Trump elected, CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues to allow Trump's hate speech. Facebook's abhorrent treatment of its content moderators has caused intense and irrevocable trauma.
2012 I deleted my Facebook in 2012.
In full transparency, I deactivated my Instagram in April 2019, but reactivated to access and to share info around BLM movement.
Former CEO donates millions a year to Trump's re-election campaign.
2008
COO has donated over 15000USD to the Trump campaign.
2017
The NFL's treatment of Colin Kaepernick and his kneeling during the anthem and Roger Goodell's hypocrisy
2018 Season I stopped watching NFL games.
Gordon Sondland owns a chain of hotels throughout Portland, Seattle, and other major U.S. cities. Sondland served as Trump's U.S. Ambassador to the European Union. Sondland donated 1MM to the Trump campaign. In 2020, he also received a 5MM-10MM PPP loan, despite being worth over 60MM himself, robbing money from small business owners. He gave nearly half a million dollars to Republican causes.
2020 I won't support any Provenance Hotel properties (including restaurants) moving forward.
Spotify continues to support Joe Rogan and is investing further in a video deal as part of his 100MM exclusivity deal with them. Joe Rogan platforms anti-trans hate rhetoric by people like Abigail Shrier.
July 2020 I cancelled my Spotify Premium account.
Teespring removes "Antifa"-related merch being sold for anti-hate but keeps white supremacist merch.
August 2020 I've never bought anything from Teespring, but will let folks looking for tee-shop recs know.
Wayfair supplied beds for Texas detention centres.
I've never purchased anything from Wayfair and will continue to avoid them.
Zara's exploitative labour practices are so bad that their workers in Turkey sewed messages into the clothes.
April 2019 I bought one shirt for a conference as a last resort, but have not shopped since.
Github sells software to ICE: https://github.com/drop-ice/dear-github-2.0