I recently discovered the photo of Guillermo Rauch with Netanyahu, I guess this was bigger news in tech circles about six months ago but until yesterday I was entirely uninformed. I have subsequently removed all my projects from Vercel (the platform Rauch founded and serves as CEO of) and written this letter to the Vercel team:
Vercel is, and has always been one of the best products I’ve used, the developer experience is flawless and over the years I’ve hosted half a dozen personal projects on the platform as well as bringing on a long-term customer.
It saddens me to leave and I did so only because I cannot in good conscience continue to support or use the product in any way. Although the original post was over six months ago I was just made aware of CEO Guillermo Rauch’s post on X posing with Benjamin Netanyahu. At that point Netanyahu had an international arrest warrant, had presided over the genocide of 60,000 people (at least a third of them children) and wholesale destroyed 80% of a city that was home to 2 million people. I believe individuals are entitled to their personal opinions but Rauch is not just an employee, as the founder and one of the original authors of the flagship product it’s hard to separate Rauch’s actions from the company. Also it’s one thing, I suppose, to post “I support Israel” in your personal socials and entirely another to actually meet and pose with a war criminal then post it on your public X which you have used for years to promote your company.
For these reasons I can no longer continue using Vercel.