"We're bad, but they're evil." Palantir Technologies, the software giant supplying legally questionable surveillance applications to government agencies has come out against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, better known as I.C.E., but not for any of the reasons you're thinking of.
In a statement today the company says, "Everyone is hating on I.C.E. right now, and we've decided to join them. It was okay when they killed that woman. Even arresting the 5 year old was okay with us. But then they killed a white guy on a Saturday. I got phone calls because of that, and working on the weekend is a line too far for me. So we are stating right here, right now, I.C.E. is bad. Really bad. With our technology, they're searching Medicaid data to find people to arrest. That should be illegal right? And we made an app for them to see how many people are in an area so they can find someone, anyone, to arrest there. Which, I think we can all agree, is just creepy. Hell, we know for a fact they check people's citizenship by taking their picture. Do you know what laws we had to break to make that database? I do, and it was a lot. Way more than we should have had to break given how often it's wrong. They gave us over $139 million to enable their lawlessness and we can't stand by them anymore. Maybe we're bad, that's up for debate. But they're evil."
In a follow-up, Palantir stated they will not be ending its contracts with I.C.E. because they make so much money that their, "shareholders would revolt." But in the future, they may consider offering a smaller bulk discount to the agency for bundling technologies.