As Friedman spoke, dozens of employees expressed frustration and outrage in a company Slack channel with more than 1,200 people, according to screenshots reviewed by The Times. A number of the posters said they viewed the company’s outward stance as clashing with its continued operational support of a government agency that arrests undocumented immigrants at workplaces, schools and hospitals; detains them in harsh and sometimes life-threatening conditions; and separates children from their families. After Friedman’s answer to the initial question, senior application engineer Josh Nichols pushed back with a follow-up: “How does the leadership team rectify GitHub’s position on Black Lives Matter with our continued business with ICE despite their racist practices and policies?” he asked. Friedman responded saying he believes investing in policy changes is a more effective method of driving progress than denying customers and forcing one such as ICE to switch to a competitor such as GitLab or Gitian, according to the transcript. [...] In the fall, employees learned the company had renewed its 2016 contract with ICE. In an open letter on Twitter, employees said continuing to work with ICE would make the company “complicit in widespread human rights abuses.” In response, Friedman announced the company would donate half a million dollars to nonprofits helping communities adversely affected by the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The gesture failed to quell anger over the issue, which continued to fester and has resulted in the departure of several employees. Da https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-06-12/github-ceo-blac... Giacomo