Developers drop Vercel, call for boycott after CEO posts selfie with Netanyahu
16 hours ago
- #Israel-Palestine
- #Tech-Backlash
- #Vercel
- Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch faced backlash after posting a selfie with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
- Developers and users are boycotting Vercel, migrating to alternatives like Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, and Replit.
- Critics accuse Rauch of supporting Netanyahu amid Israel's actions in Gaza, labeled as genocide by the UN.
- Next.js, a framework tied to Vercel, is also under scrutiny, with calls to separate it from Vercel's branding.
- Employees at Vercel have publicly resigned in protest against Rauch's meeting with Netanyahu.
- Netanyahu's comments on social media as a 'weapon' for Israel's narrative control sparked further outrage.
- Reports reveal Israel's $6M deal with Brad Parscale to train AI models with pro-Israel messaging.
- Human Rights Watch and Meta leaks show systematic suppression of pro-Palestinian content online.
- The controversy highlights the intersection of tech infrastructure and political stances, prompting debates on vendor ethics.