A tech company posted a job seeking only white applicants with the note 'don't share with candidates'

• A job post from IT firm Arthur Grand Technologies went viral for specifying white candidates only.
• The company removed the post and apologized, initially saying it was posted by a junior recruiter.

A tech company has gotten swift backlash for listing a job post seeking white candidates only — alongside a note not to publish that information.

Arthur Grand Technologies, an IT services firm founded in 2012 and based in Ashburn, Virginia, posted a business analyst position on Indeed. The post, however, also included a note: "Only Born US Citizens [White] who are local within 60 miles from Dallas, TX. [Don't share with candidates.]"

The company, which has apologized, said that an ex-employee added discriminatory language to a job listing and published it without authorization.

The post listed IT company HTC Global and Berkshire Hathaway as clients for the business analyst role, whose responsibilities would include Salesforce implementation. Arthur Grand Technologies, HTC Global, and Berkshire Hathaway did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Salesforce declined to comment.

The post went viral, causing outrage on Reddit and Twitter.

"This is illegal and nauseating," one Redditor said of the situation.

"We're sorry that a junior recruiter revealed our company culture," another Redditor said.

"Every minority who ever applied for a position with Arthur Grand Technologies and was denied employment needs to lawyer up," one person tweeted.

Arthur Grand took the job post down and addressed the controversy on its LinkedIn page.

"At Arthur Grand, we do not condone or engage in any type of discrimination based on race, color, or religion," the company initially said on LinkedIn. "We conducted an investigation and discovered that a new junior recruiter at our firm was responsible for the offending job posting. We have taken immediate action and terminated their employment for violating our policy."

The company, which provides a number of technology and consulting services, later removed its statement from its LinkedIn page and offered a different explanation, saying the job post was "neither authorized nor posted by Arthur Grand or its employees."

"A former employee took an existing posting and added discriminatory language, then reposted it through his own account. The moment this was brought to our attention, we worked with the job portal to remove this offensive job posting. Necessary legal action has been initiated against the job poster," the company said in its latest statement on LinkedIn, adding that it's a "minority-owned company."

It's illegal for employers to publish a job post that "shows a preference for or discourages someone from applying for a job because of his or her race," among other factors, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.