Big Tech Silicon Valley Forms Catalyze Tech Coalition, But Facebook And Amazon Are Not Invited To Join

JAKARTA – Google, Apple, Twitter, Snap, and several other tech giants have formed a 'Catalyze Tech' coalition which they say will work to increase DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) in their workforce.

As inclusion and representation become increasingly important issues in all areas of society, the business has also joined forces in efforts to increase diversity in their midst. While the world has taken great strides toward a more egalitarian society, there are still gaps and loopholes that make it difficult for women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community to make their presence felt in the tech industry.

Striking in their absence from the coalition are Facebook and Amazon, both of which are battling a plethora of allegations about their operations, privacy policies, treatment of employees, and more.

While Facebook is under intense scrutiny following its recent whistleblower disclosures, Amazon has also had to deal with controversies of its own, ranging from the precarious working conditions of its employees to alleged copying of product designs and fraudulent search results to benefit the company's own brand.

A coalition of 31 leading academics and technology company leaders has released a new report titled 'Action to Catalyze Tech' which calls on technology companies to unlock "DEI best practices, encourage collaboration on systemic solutions, and increase accountability to drive change."

The group is organized by the Aspen Institute, National Center for Women & Information Technology, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Snap Inc. Several leading technology companies, their CEOs and senior executives have signed on as founding members of the coalition as a pledge to hold their respective companies to the highest standards when it comes to DEI initiatives.

Alongside the aforementioned companies, some of the other notable signatories to the report include AirBnB, Cisco, Netflix, Salesforce, Spotify, Uber, LinkedIn, Etsy, Nextdoor, Dropbox, Dell, Intel, among others.

The Silicon Valley signatories believe that the new coalition will be able to address some of the problems that have prevented the industry from offering a true representation of twenty-first-century society in the US and beyond. The coalition, they say, will bring transparency and accountability to offer justice to underrepresented communities in technology.

The Coalition will also seek to implement at least four of the key recommendations of the new report, starting with promoting inclusive leadership. Some of the other proposals include increasing supplier diversity and product inclusion.

The company also pledged to share DEI demographic data with the Technological Equity Accountability Mechanism, a new organization created by the Aspen Institute for companies to report their DEI data.

Finally, the coalition will also seek to increase diversity among technology employees, starting with increasing the number of K-12 computer science teachers from underrepresented backgrounds.