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by 1v1id 2188 days ago
This wasn't just Microsoft. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/technology/amazon-facial-...

Not saying it wasn't wrong pitch to DEA, but it seems strange that it's Microsoft being called out when, concretely, they were probably the earliest adopters of not selling due to human rights concerns https://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-ai-idUSKCN1RS2F... https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/12/06/facial-...

3 comments

People are yelling about Microsoft hypocrisy after they made noise on their feel-good achieve-nothing move at Github.

In my opinion, people have been complaining about the change too much, and the hypocrisy too little. The PR was probably positive, when it shouldn't be.

> Not saying it wasn't wrong pitch to DEA, but it seems strange that it's Microsoft being called out when

It’s not strange, this is exactly the story that’s being called out. The behavior is incongruous

They have come out to say some very good things, as you say. But is it still principled if it only comes right after failing to win a big contract to do the opposite? Not as clear