The campaign wants Nextdoor’s leadership to do more to protect communities of color
For immediate release: September 28, 2020
Contact: press@kairosfellows.org
Nextdoor, an app that connects more than 200,000 people in their neighborhoods to share real-time information and concerns has partnerships with police departments across the U.S.
Technology-focused racial justice group, Kairos, launched a public campaign against Nextdoor today. The campaign featured stories of Nextdoor users who oppose policing on the app. This move comes after the group met with Nextdoor’s leadership and were told that the company would not cut ties with police.
“Nextdoor needs to understand that their reach goes far beyond the people who use their app. Just last week, Nextdoor CEO said Nextdoor is the ‘humane platform,’ but the platform’s racism problems mixed with their intentional partnership with police make it dangerous. Nextdoor has to follow through on their statements supporting Black Lives Matter and cut ties with law enforcement.” said Jelani Drew, Kairos campaigner.
Here’s some quotes from Nextdoor users:
“Nextdoor: Please end your relationship with police and discourage surveillance of people. Next Door has many good aspects so let's make it neighborly to all.” -- J.P., Nextdoor user in Utah https://twitter.com/KairosFellows/status/1310663065331998721?s=20
“NextDoor should be about community, which is why I joined. I can imagine people using the easy access to police that ND allows to settle disputes, which I know puts my neighbors of color at increased risk. This makes me especially nervous in my racially diverse neighborhood.” -- K.R., Nextdoor user in Pennsylvania https://twitter.com/KairosFellows/status/1310647965120262144?s=20
“Racism has been my experience with nextdoor — more surveillance than community.” K.N., Nextdoor user in North Carolina https://twitter.com/KairosFellows/status/1310617768161685506?s=20
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