How is donating $500k in response to making $200k from their sale a relevant response? Is this their way of bribing people to quiet down? Seems twisted.
Presumably the $500,000 in donation specifically to help victims of controversial ICE practices will have significantly more beneficial impact than the $200,000 in GitHub services they'll provide will do harm. And arguably, it means they're taking a loss on this particular business to both uphold their commitment to their customers and uphold their values regarding immigration practices.
Given the level of complexity of the issue, I'd say it's at least... not a bad attempt at walking a very narrow line here.
One thing Businesses like consistency - if GitHub goes after ICE, then why not IRS or FBI or any other private organization - every Org is one controversy away from to be deemed persona non grata.
Its not about ICE with GitHub, what they are doing is worth mulitple millions in future earnings. So good move CEO - the question is how much the WOKE nation is going to eat this PR CAKE.
I think it's a way of demonstrating that they don't care about the money in this situation and the decision was guided entirely by what they felt was right. Donating $500k instead of 200 was a bit weird, but I guess it's going to a cause that fights the primary department of ICE that people tend to object to, so it might be a way to demonstrate that they truly believe what they're saying