SUPPORTING STATEMENT: Digital service providers (DSPs) such as Salesforce control access to critical computer and web-related services and infrastructure that facilitate the open exchange of information. As such, these companies have unprecedented power to censor speech, and have been under increasing pressure to remove religious and conservative views from the marketplace.

Respecting freedom of speech and religious liberty is fundamental to the open and fair discourse necessary for self-governance. Salesforce can and should promote these fundamental freedoms to best serve its diverse users and participate in the market to the best of its ability, an effort it legally owes its shareholders.

Recent events and DSPs’ own policies suggest that users’ and customers’ freedom of speech and religion are at risk. In addition to concerning revelations of collusion with government at companies like Meta and Twitter to censor constitutionally protected speech,1 the 2023 edition of the Viewpoint Diversity Business Index2 found that 74% of the largest DSPs have policies that permit them to deny or restrict service based on subjective and vague terms like “misinformation,” “hate speech,” “intolerance” or “reputational risk.”3 In an Orwellian fashion, these arbitrary standards are exploited by tech companies – often under pressure from activists, the US government and foreign governments – to censor conservative and religious users.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff threatened to withdraw the Company from conservative states – which is most states – for “the equality and dignity of every human being.”4 The Company also refused to assure shareholders that employees would not be discriminated against for viewpoint or ideology, when asked about it explicitly at a shareholder meeting.5

And while Salesforce has fully engaged in viewpoint discrimination, it also maintains that it promotes an “inclusive workplace” and is “committed to driving equality for employees, customers, partners, and society at large.”6 Shareholders must ensure that Salesforce is adhering to its own standards and the standards of the US constitution by serving diverse customers without regard to their political views or religious beliefs.

When Salesforce engages in viewpoint discrimination, it exposes itself to heightened legal liability for both hindering access of certain Americans to the marketplace – which undermines constitutionally protected freedoms – and for prioritizing ideology over sound business practices, thereby failing to abide by its fiduciary duty to shareholders.