Apple, Amazon and Google slam 'discriminatory' voting restriction laws

Apple , Amazon , and Google parent Alphabet were among companies that signed a statement opposing "discriminatory legislation " that makes it harder for Americans to vote, as previously reported by The New York Times. The statement ran in an ad in the Times and in The Washington Post on Wednesday, in response to restrictive changes to Georgia's state election process.

The state's Election Integrity Act was signed into law last month by Gov. Brian Kemp. State officials say the law enacts security measures for elections and expands access to voting, while critics, including the Georgia NAACP, say the law will disenfranchise Black and minority voters.

Read more: Georgia's new election law: Microsoft, Apple and other tech companies speak against it

Facebook, Netflix, IBM , Dell , Reddit, Peloton, Pinterest, Cisco , Twitter and Square were some of the other tech companies on Wednesday's list. 

Individuals who signed include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and president Brad Smith, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield, Dell Technologies head Michael Dell , Uber boss Dara Khosrowshahi, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, Lyft co-founder John Zimmer, Pinterest's Ben Silbermann and former Google boss Eric Schmidt . Star Wars creator George Lucas and director JJ Abrams are among the celebrity signatories.

"We all should feel a responsibility to defend the right to vote and to oppose any discriminatory legislation or measures that restrict or prevent any eligible voter from having an equal and fair opportunity to cast a ballot," the ad reads 

Wednesday's statement, which was organized by former American Express CEO and Kenneth Chenault and Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, comes after Amazon, Apple, Dell, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter separately voiced concerns about the Georgia law earlier this month.