Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse opposes Coinbase’s ‘no politics’ policy

Brad Garlinghouse said tech companies have an obligation to contribute to solving societal issues.

Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of blockchain-based payments firm Ripple, disagrees with Coinbase’s new policy restricting its employees from engaging in political discussions at work.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong first announced the ‘apolitical’ policy in a blog post on Sep. 27. He encouraged Coinbase employees to not indulge in political discussion and keep their focus on the company’s mission of creating an open financial system for the world.

Garlinghouse disagrees, telling CNBC that technology companies have an obligation to contribute to solving societal issues.

Garlinghouse said that tech companies and platforms have made some societal problems worse, so they must also be willing to work on solutions for them.

As an example, he said, Ripple was taking YouTube to court for failing to flag scam giveaway videos that lured viewers into sending thousands of dollars in Ripple’s associated cryptocurrency XRP.

He added that Ripple didn’t need to indulge in the legalities of the matter as it wouldn’t help the company but stressed that tech companies must take responsibility and ownership of the problems to which they are contributing.

Coinbase has been bleeding employees ever since Armstrong instituted the controversial policy change, with some high-level execs leaving the firm.