Yesterday Dropbox made a few announcements, which include the new Carousel Gallery feature. The cloud storage company also announced that former United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice would be joining its board. Internet activists are up in arms, and are now trying to push Dropbox to drop her from the board. Though its likely that Dropbox might have considered the blowback prior to the announcement, given that Rice’s position in the Bush administration has often been the cause of controversy.
A petition has popped up online, at www.drop-dropbox.com, demanding that the company remove her from the board and that users will switch to other services unless Dropbox complies. The petition includes references to Rice’s time in the Bush administration, including but not limited to its use of highly controversial interrogation techniques as well as wiretapping.
Rice’s stint on Chevron’s board has also been mentioned, though the petition writer admits that she is an “extremely brilliant and accomplished individual,” who is “well-connected,” so one can understand why Dropbox would want her to be on its board. Dropbox users are prompted to take this cause forward with the #DropDropbox hashtag on both Twitter and Facebook.
The activists may only be a subset of Dropbox’s entire user base, but there are several instances when they have successfully been able to have their way. It would not be wrong to assume that this may simply blow over as time passes, but it would certainly be wrong to assume that Dropbox and Rice’s team might not have considered such possibilities before making the announcement.
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