Apple to donate $2 million to anti-hate groups, Tim Cook tells staff

Jefferson Graham | USA TODAY

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Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company would donate $2 million to anti-hate groups, releasing a staff memo that rebuked President Trump and others who claim a "moral equivalence" between white supremacists and the protesters who countered them in last week's deadly Virginia rally.

Cook sent a memo to employees Wednesday pledging the donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. The Montgomery, Alabama based SPLC is one of the leading groups that track the rise of hate groups. Cook is an Alabama native.

Apple is also encouraging employees to contribute as well, and is matching their payments by two to one through Sept. 30. Additionally, Apple is setting up a system in Apple's iTunes software to let consumers directly donate to the SPLC, which Cook said would be operational within the next few days.

We’ve seen the terror of white supremacy & racist violence before. It's a moral issue - an affront to America. We must all stand against it — Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 14, 2017

“Like so many of you, equality is at the core of my beliefs and values,” Cook wrote. “The events of the past several days have been deeply troubling for me, and I’ve heard from many people at Apple who are saddened, outraged or confused,” Cook said in the memo, which was shared with USA TODAY.

“What occurred in Charlottesville has no place in our country. Hate is a cancer, and left unchecked it destroys everything in its path. Its scars last generations. History has taught us this time and time again, both in the United States and countries around the world.”

Cook has met with Trump twice since he was elected, in New York and at the White House, which kicked off Trump's American Technology Council.

In the email, he followed other CEOs who earlier Wednesday directly criticized President Trump's latest remarks on the deadly protests in Charlottesville, Va. In a heated press conference Tuesday, Trump said "both sides" — referring to white nationalists that had gathered in a torch-lit rally, and the counter-protesters that demonstrated against them — were to blame.

"I disagree with the president and others who believe that there is a moral equivalence between white supremacists and Nazis, and those who oppose them by standing up for human rights. Equating the two runs counter to our ideals as Americans," wrote Cook.

More: Trump economic councils disbanded after Charlottesville response

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Tech companies have been responding in a variety of ways to the firestorm of controversy that followed the rally, which resulted in the death of one counterprotester, and Trump's remarks, which emboldened white nationalists and other far-right groups.

Facebook vowed to crack down on hate group postings, Spotify said it would take down music tracks from groups with hate lyrics, Airbnb yanked reservations from hate groups, and Google and GoDaddy both revoked website credentials for the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website. Apple said its Apple Pay was removing hate sites from using the service.