It only took a few months for President Donald Trump to be elected to a second term Palantir questioning employees’ companies civil liberties obligations. Last fall, Palantir was visible technological basis Trump’s immigration enforcement, which provides software that identifies, tracks and helps deport immigrants on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, as current and former employees start sounding the alarm.
At that time, the two ex-employees reconnected by phone. “Are you watching Palantir’s descent into fascism?” asked one of them as he answered the call.
“That was their salute,” said another former employee. There’s a sense of, ‘This feels wrong,’ rather than, ‘Oh, this is unpopular and difficult.'”
Palantir, with its initial venture capital investment from the CIA, was founded at a moment of national consensus after the September 11, 2001 attacks, when many saw the fight against terrorism abroad as the most critical mission facing the United States. Founded by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, the company sells high-powered software. data collection and analysis tool powering everything from private businesses to the US military’s targeting systems.
For the past 20 years, employees have endured intense outside criticism and awkward conversations with family and friends about working for a company that spoiled JRR Tolkien’s all-seeing globe. But a year into Trump’s second term, employees are finally raising those concerns internally as Palantir deepens its relationship with an administration that many employees fear is wreaking havoc at home, as the U.S. war on immigrants, the war in Iran and even manifestos released by the company force them to rethink their role in it all.
“We hire the best and brightest talent to defend America and its allies, and we build and deploy our software to help governments and businesses around the world. Palantir is not a monolithic faith, and neither should we be,” said a Palantir spokesperson. “We all pride ourselves on a culture of fierce internal dialogue and even disagreement on the complex areas we work in. This has been true since our founding and remains true today.”
