Dropbox announced on Wednesday that former US secretary state Dr Condoleeza Rice, will be joining the Dropbox board of directors, but not everybody is happy about Rice’s appointment.
A new site called #DropDropbox has been set up, calling on Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to remove Dr Rice from the Dropbox board of directors, otherwise the creators of #DropDropbox and anyone else who supports the petition will stop using Dropbox.
“Choosing Condoleezza Rice for Dropbox’s board is problematic on a number of deeper levels, and invites serious concerns about Drew Houston and the senior leadership at Dropbox’s commitment to freedom, openness, and ethics. When a company quite literally has access to all of your data, ethics become more than a fun thought experiment,” the petition reads.
According to #DropDropbox, these are the reasons why Rice shouldn’t be on the board of directors:
- Condoleezza Rice was president Bush’s national security advisor during the lead-up to the Iraq War, and was intimately involved in the decision to go to war with Iraq and spoke publicly in support of it.
- Rice played a central role in affirming the “legality” of the Bush administration’s torture program. A senate report revealed that Rice verbally agreed to allow torture methods to be used on captured suspects, and then lied about the extent to which she was involved.
- Rice not only spoke in favor of the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretap program and expansive domestic surveillance program, she authorized the warrantless wiretap of UN Security Council members.
- Until 1982, Rice was a registered Democrat and voted for Jimmy Carter. Shortly thereafter, she changed her party affiliation because “in part because she disagreed with the foreign policy of [the president].”
Supporters are prompted to “tell Drew Houston: drop Condoleezza Rice or we will #DropDropbox” by sharing a link to the site via Twitter and Facebook. And just so supporters aren’t left without options outside of Dropbox, the site lists a number of alternatives to move to such as Google Drive, Box.com, Spider Oak and One Drive.
#DropDropbox also has a petition on Causes.com which supporters can sign. So far it has 2 962 signatures, with another 2 038 more needed.
Dropbox is yet to comment on the issue.
[Image: DropDropbox]