IT’S NOT ME, IT’S YOU.
Pledge to Support Black Lives, not Amazon’s Profits
Red flags: This relationship is toxic.
As people across the country take to the streets demanding an end to police violence against Black communities, Amazon is quietly positioning itself to rake in the benefits of the next evolution of policing. Instead, Amazon should sincerely align itself with today’s Movement for Black Lives, which demands our cities to #DefundThePolice. The funding spent on policing, surveilling, and caging Black and brown communities hardest hit by the COVID19 pandemic should be reinvested back into housing, education, and other relief programs.
We know breakups are hard, but we’re here to remind you that Amazon doesn’t deserve you:
Digital Policing
Amazon’s Facial Recognition:
Amazon’s Rekognition software is being used to build a future where you will be identified and tracked everywhere you go in your community. Black and brown communities, already over-policed and prone to being misidentified by this technology, will face the highest cost of surveillance, from increased criminalization and incarceration to police violence.
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Amazon continued to sell their facial recognition software, “Rekognition” to law enforcement, knowing the racial bias in its algorithms. Despite a yearlong moratorium, Amazon continues secretive agreements with DHS, ICE, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, suggesting their technology is used directly to separate families at the border.
Mass Surveillance
Amazon’s Ring:
Ring gives police backdoor access to your front-door footage. Over 1,600 police departments partner with Amazon Ring. Nearly half have a history of excessive force or police-involved civilian deaths. That’s over 10 million households helping Amazon digitize racist “Stop & Frisk” policies and powering more police violence against Black lives.
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Neighbors, Amazon Ring’s reporting app, encourages people to spy on anyone passing by and label them as “suspicious,” which automates racial profiling. There is no evidence to support that Amazon Ring and the Neighbors app actually help reduce crime or maintain public safety. Meanwhile, they put Black lives in danger.
Mass Deportations
Amazon’s Web Services:
AWS powers government agencies and private companies by collecting and analyzing data for the policing, surveillance, detention and deportation of majority Black and Latinx communities. Since 2014, AWS profits from government agencies — tied to violence against Black lives abroad and at home — grew from $200 million to over $2 billion.
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Palantir, a surveillance company and key enabler of one of the worst human rights violations we’ve ever seen, is one of their customers. Palantir uses AWS to run its surveillance software, including ICE’s Intensive Case Management System and FALCON. AWS powers family separations, massive workplace raids, and kidnapping unaccompanied children.
We’ve got our #EyesOnAmazon. Time’s up for racist tech!
UPDATE: On May 17, we received a win in our fight against Amazon’s racist surveillance. However, this victory is a partial one, one big step in a long-haul fight.
People power got Amazon to extend their moratorium on sales of facial recognition tech indefinitely, and we won’t stop until we’ve gotten what we’ve been demanding: a total ban. The rest of our demands are also still on the table, so take action to help us carry this campaign all the way to the complete victory that BIPOC communities deserve!
The George Floyd uprisings last summer prompted a slew of performative corporate “solidarity” statements from major companies to Black communities… despite the harmful, racist impacts of their products & treatment of workers. Amazon joined the trend in June with an empty promise to “pause” selling their racist facial recognition and surveillance technologies to law enforcement for one year. (With a notable exception for ICE and DHS.)
The clock runs out on that one year moratorium very soon. Join us in letting Amazon know that we’ve got all #EyesOnAmazon and demand that they actually protect Black lives by dropping their racist tech & police partnerships immediately. It’s #PrimeTime to shift power back to the people.
