PayPal, Apple & YouTube Pledge $730M For Racial Justice
PayPal, Apple and YouTube collectively pledge $730M to racial justice and equity efforts.
Three of Silicon Valley's largest technology companies on Thursday pledged outsized monetary donations to racial justice causes and vowed to work to better serve the black community. The announcements come in the wake of nationwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man, during police custody in Minneapolis earlier this month. By far the largest monetary commitment came from PayPal Holdings, the San Jose-based digital payments giant, which said Thursday that it was setting aside $530 million to support black and minority-owned businesses and communities in the U.S.Separately, Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube each pledged $100 million to racial justice efforts.
PayPal's pledge includes: A $500 million long-term economic opportunity fund to support black and underrepresented minority businesses and communities. PayPal said the initiative will include "bolstering the company's relationships with community banks and credit unions serving underrepresented minority communities, as well as investing directly into Black and minority-led startups and minority-focused investment funds." Startups and investment funds interested in getting involved can contact the PayPal Ventures team here.$10 million in grants to black-owned businesses impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic or civil unrest surrounding the protests. "These grants will provide direct support to business owners to cover expenses related to stabilizing and reopening their businesses," PayPal said in a statement, adding that the fund will be managed in partnership with the nonprofit Association for Enterprise Opportunity. Interested businesses can apply for a grant at aeoworks.org/paypalgrant/.
Another $5 million fund for program grants and matching employee donations to nonprofits that PayPal has partnered with to aid black business owners with microloans, technical assistance, and mentoring. PayPal said it will match $2 for every $1 an employee donates and $10 for every hour an employee volunteers to racial and economic justice efforts in local communities, up to $500,000.
"For far too long, Black people in America have faced deep-seated injustice and systemic economic inequality," PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said in a statement. "Black lives matter and we need to drive transformative change. We must take decisive action to close the racial wealth gap that sustains this profound inequity."
Apple to tackle 'systemic barriers to opportunity'
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday that the Cupertino-based company had launched a $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative that will focus on criminal justice reform and expanding economic and educational opportunities for people of color. Apple will also increase its spending with Black-owned vendors in its supply chain and increase the representation of Black-owned businesses among the companies it works with, Cook said in a video posted on Twitter.
The iPhone maker will also expand its work with historically Black colleges and universities to bring more people of color into the tech workforce and plans to launch a camp for black software developers and entrepreneurs, he said.
“The initiative will challenge the systemic barriers to opportunity and dignity that exists for communities of color and particular for the black community,” Cook said.
YouTube to 'amplify Black voices'
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said Thursday that the San Bruno-based company was launching a $100 million, multi-year content fund "dedicated to amplifying and developing the voices of Black creators and artists and their stories" on the video platform. Throughout the month of June, the platform will also showcase content around racial justice issues, she wrote, including coverage of the ongoing protests around the U.S.
YouTube's commitment comes as it and other online platforms increasingly face scrutiny and criticism over their decisions to moderate user content. YouTube in particular has struggled to contain harassment and extremist content on its site, including white supremacist and neo-Nazi views.
"We’ve taken many steps over the years to help protect diverse communities from hate and harassment across the platform, including Black creators and artists," Wojcicki said Thursday. "And last year, we developed more stringent hate speech and harassment policies. Our updated hate speech policy specifically bans videos alleging that a group is superior based on qualities like race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion. As a result of these changes and our ongoing enforcement, last quarter alone we removed over 100,000 videos and 100 million comments for hate and harassment."
She continued: "That said, we know there’s more work to do. Building on our work over the past several years, we’re taking this moment to examine how our policies and products are working for everyone — but specifically for the Black community — and close any gaps. And more broadly, we will work to ensure Black users, artists, and creators can share their stories and be protected from hateful, white supremacist, and bullying content."
Reference: Biz Journals