INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WOWO): At least one company has made good on a promise to cut its business in Indiana over the new religious freedom law.
Governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law Thursday afternoon. Moments later, the CEO of tech company Salesforce.com sent out a Tweet saying he was scaling back business in the state.
“Today we are canceling all programs that require our customers/employees to travel to Indiana to face discrimination,” read the Tweet from Marc Benioff sent at 11:02 Thursday morning.
Salesforce is a cloud computing company based in San Francisco that bought Indianapolis marketing company ExactTarget last year. Benioff was one of several tech company leaders to sign a letter sent to Pence earlier this week asking him to veto the bill.
“Technology professionals are by their nature very progressive, and backward-looking legislation such as the RFRA will make the state of Indiana a less appealing place to live and work,” read part of the letter.
A follow up Tweet from Benioff linked to a news story about the bill and read:
“Attention Tech CEOs/Industry: pay attn to what is happening in IN & how it will impact your employees & customers.”
Pence insists that opponents of the bill misunderstand its intentions and says it will not lead to discrimination.
At least two conventions have said they may leave Indianapolis in response to the law; the 2017 meeting of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), whose headquarters are also in Indianapolis, and the massive gaming convention GenCon. GenCon is under contract to be held annually in the city through 2020.
