[drsnow]

>History also shows Mozilla today are more concerned about checking the right political checkboxes than delivering a good product that users want.

As a trans person, I am happy that my browser developers are on my side and not the side of the people who'd rather see me be harassed or bullied into suicide.

[simondotau]

If I were a trans person, I would be insulted by large corporations draping themselves in such superficial, low effort, utterly incongruous lip service to my cause, using past and present prejudice against me as a marketing opportunity to sell more web browsers. Corporations love to passively attach themselves to causes like this. Social responsibility has become the responsibility of the marketing department, plus whatever minimum corporate change is sufficient to sell the sizzle.

This story has played out countless times, whether it's world hunger in the 1980s, third-wave feminism in the 1990s, global warming in the 2000s, or generic environmentalism (i.e. "greenwashing") in the 2010s. If they wanted to, corporations can be a force for good. The treadmill of causes du jour gives them a convenient excuse to not try.

For the sake of the trans community I'd like to think that this time they're being sincere. This time it's authentic. But I find it hard to believe. Maybe I'm too cynical.

[hitekker]

Observing from the outside, the lip service is successful because it offers the illusion of righteousness to the weak-minded and stupid. The extremely online crowd love feeling being a part of a "cause" and not thinking about what the "cause" actually means. Until they're left out in the cold when the corporation shifts to another newsworthy cause to trumpet.

Some of the rabble go quiet, the rest double-down. They try to convince themselves and everyone else they weren't fooled. They want to believe they're still a voice in a worthy social cause, and not a pawn in a game that they don't even know how to play.

[hnbad]

The question isn't whether a company genuinely supports trans people or just does it for the money. The question is whether they support trans people or oppose them. They're a company. They're driven by profitability and ROI first.

It doesn't matter that they're not sincere. It doesn't matter that they're not authentic. It matters that they help normalize pro-trans messaging, rather than normalizing anti-trans messaging, or doing nothing. Yes, it'd be nice to live in a world where you get to choose between the company that sincerely supports trans people and the company that merely does so for optics but still fires those sincerely opposing them, but that's not the one we live in.

To be honest, I think most of the trans community would be perfectly happy to have companies simply not actively funnel money into politicians who want them to stop existing. Alas.

[simondotau]

There’s a lot I could take issue with about what you’ve said, not least of which being the absolutist “with us or against us” mentality which toxifies US politics. If you want to have a single issue dictate every one of the hundreds of choices you make every day, have at it, but I’m not going to pick a web browser based on which one pays the most lip service to one particular social issue.

But really, I just can’t get past the idea of “it doesn’t matter if they’re not sincere” when in the same paragraph you spell out exactly why that’s an absurd thing to say.

[dogleash]

> The question is whether they support trans people or oppose them

But they're neither. They’re indifferent with some opportunist exploitation sprinkled on top.

[simondotau]

And indifferent is the right attitude. It is wrong for corporations to be treated as a channel of political power. This is a point we should be consistent on, we shouldn’t make an exception for when it seems convenient to us… because we certainly don’t like it when it’s used against us.

[Dalewyn]

As a reasonable person, I am not happy that a browser's developers are more concerned about tangential, arguably completely unrelated, issues to their product.

[gkoberger]

You're confusing "more concerned" with "also concerned". I guarantee you that they can care about both at the same time, and I would LOVE to see an example where they prioritize trans rights at the expense of web standards.

[candiodari]

Ok: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich

[hitekker]

The silence from Gregory Koberger is typical. The idea that Mozilla has zero malice, that it didn't compromise web standards in favor of social activism, meets the reality that they fired the creator of Javascript and ran his name through the mud.

As usual, we tech workers prioritize group identity over personal integrity.

[gkoberger]

Not meant to be silent, there's just no notifications on HN.

Ironic you're bothered Eich's name was "ran through the mud", but had no problem going out of your way to dig up and use my full name.

Everyone at Mozilla knew about his donation before he was promoted to CEO. Lots of people had opinions (and shouldn't they be allowed to?), but Mozilla officially supported him (this was his boss: https://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2014/03/26/building-a-global...). He was not fired, he stepped down.

Donating money to prevent people from getting married feels more in line with "malice" to me than people reacting to his donation, but hey, that's just my opinion and I haven't worked at Mozilla for over a decade.

Most importantly, though, Eich just proves that a single person left the company. I'm not sure how that indicates web standards were hurt or Mozilla's mission of a free and open web was compromised – like I said before, you can both care about the people around you and also care about an open web.

[TheHappyOddish]

Are those the only two sides? In public support and signalling, or wanting you dead? I think I'd prefer neither personally, and for companies to just do their jobs.

[bharathyes]

As any person, if we start caring about the political or moral affiliations of the makers of every single product we use there doesn't seem to be an efficient, reliable source of such information. I can barely avoid a single company let alone all those I dont agree with.

Beyond a limited number of companies who go against popular opinion (possibly bcos their target customers are too), most are going to publicly support all the same socially acceptable stands. This doesn't mean there are some vile people employed in those positive companies or some decent, well meaning pepole working in the bad companies just for a paycheck. it's hard to judge with a simple look.

As a consumer you are free to support or boycott a product on any criteria that you like but question is how much of a realworld difference their placit support for your cause makes.

[azangru]

I want browser developers to be on the side of everyone who uses web browsers, and who builds for the web platform.

[silisili]

I get that, as much as a non trans can I suppose. But the product objectively lags behind. If the only reason to use it is because of some social project or issue, and not on technical merits, it won't be around forever (and I firmly believe Firefox will not).

Seems best just to leave politics out of business.

[nyanpasu64]

As a cat, I'd prefer for Firefox to stop integrating a Pocket chumbox and pinning sponsored sites on the new tab page, advertising Firefox VPN in their browser, increasing padding in the Normal tab bar at the same time they hide the option for Compact size, adding time-limited colorways you can't sync onto new computers added after the color scheme expires...

[hnbad]

> Seems best just to leave politics out of business.

You literally can't, though. Business is inherently political. And even if the corporation itself may attempt to remain neutral and refuse to participate in any donations or fundraisers, the C-level executives and the shareholders who derive most of the excess value produced by the company are still people with opinions who have a lot of disposable income they can throw one way or another.

If you truly think business can avoid politics you should ask yourself why all the companies priding themselves in not engaging in politics are run by people who lean right-libertarian. It's hard to see the water when you're a fish.

[silisili]

I don't know, it seems only one side says that. If it were true, wouldn't both?

Further, only one side takes some ignorant position like 'doing nothing is taking sides!'