Amazon said the government should decide if it can sell technology to the government



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It has been a little over a year since an alliance of some 500 Amazon employees asked the company to abandon its contracts with government agencies. Now the demonstrations are starting again. This week, the 2018 petition has been redirected to Amazon in the email list We will not build it and in other groups of employee resources in a letter containing requests to prevent businesses, such as the 39, Palantir data company, which outsourced directly with ICE to use Amazon Web Services technology and a call for action pointed out: "take a public stand against these human rights violations and make a statement establishing their position against the camps, the mass raids and the expulsions of ICE ".

Internal sources at the company told BuzzFeed News that they have been inspired by recent reports of poor detention conditions in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers and threats of deportation. imminent.

Amazon, which is generally superficial in the face of this outcry from employees, has yet to suggest that it will consider providing services to Palantir and other enforcement agencies. of the law. Rather, the company argued that the government should determine what constitutes "acceptable use" of the technology that it sells.

"As we have said time and time again, and we continue to believe strongly, businesses and government organizations must use existing and new technologies responsibly and legally," Amazon said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. . "Governments clearly need more clarity on what is an acceptable use of AI and the consequences of its misuse, and we have provided a proposed legislative framework to that effect. We sincerely hope that the government will provide this additional clarity and this legislation, and we will continue to propose our specific ideas and suggestions. "

Protesters opposed to ICE broke off an Amazon conference in New York on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported. On Monday, activists with the same message plan to demonstrate in front of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' new apartment in Manhattan, according to a press release. Monday is Amazon Prime Day, a sales event that in 2018 has generated more than $ 4 billion in revenue for the retailer.

It should be noted that opposition to government contracts is not uniform among all Amazon employees. As a result of this week's letter "We will not build," some employees said they would not oppose the sale of technology to law enforcement generally; others said they support ICE's mission to enforce immigration laws. According to an internal source in the company, the debate between some employees on this issue was animated.

Other technology companies, including Google and Microsoft, have also been the target of employee activism regarding their contracts with government agencies. And Amazon has also heard other grievances from him. Thousands of employees have signed a petition lobbying society to take action against climate change. Some of these signatories will join Amazon warehouse workers to participate in a First Day strike in Minnesota on Monday.

Read the full text of the letter from the employee here:

In June 2018, a group of concerned Amazonians sent a letter to JEff Bezos and Andy Jassy, ​​asking AWS:

  1. Stop selling surveillance technology to law enforcement and government agencies

  2. Stop providing infrastructure to Palantir and all other Amazon partners that activate ICE, and

  3. Put in place strong transparency and accountability measures for the sale and use of our services

Since then, the company has taken every opportunity to recognize this letter signed by more than 500 employees. Andy Jassy, ​​confronted with these issues within a company, said, "We are really excited about the value that Amazon Rekognition provides our customers of all sizes and from all sectors, in the field. from law enforcement and law enforcement. "More recently, he added that" the mere fact that technology can be misused does not mean that we should be doing it. " prohibit and condemn ", comparing Rekognition to a knife:" you can use a knife like a supperitios. "As Americans, we are asked to take charge of our work, that is to say that we never "say it's not my job." Transferring responsibility for the effects of our work is not the property.

Our requests have become even more urgent given the latest news. The US government has detained people, including young children, and concentration camps in horrific conditions. According to reports, in brackets extreme overcrowding, a facility contained 900 people and a space designed for only 125 people), freezing temperatures (the facilities are regularly called "hieleras" or "coolers") and the cruelty of the guards in these centers of detention. When members of Congress recently visited an installation, they learned that the officers had ordered women inmates to drink water in the toilet if they needed water. This is a horrific violation of human rights, generated by AWS.

Palantir, which uses AWS services, provides the technical infrastructure used by ICE to collect and process information about people targeted for eviction. A court case dating back to 2016 revealed that Execution and Withdrawal Operations (ERO), the main expulsion branch of ICE, were using Palantir's systems to gather information about its affairs.

The AWS Acceptable Use Policy states that "any activity that is unlawful, infringes the rights of others or is likely to harm others, our business or our reputation" may constitute a ground for suspension or termination "of the use of our services.

Palantirdirect allows ICE to "violate the rights of others" by reinforcing deportation processes that bring immigrants together and place them in concentration camps. In addition, Palantir hosting is "detrimental to our reputation" because it harms customer trust and generates negative publicity. By continuing to host Palantir despite clear documentation of ongoing rights violations resulting from their products, AWS chooses not to apply its Terms of Use.

AWS has already returned other platform clients for similar violations. Wikileaks was launched for the potential of "putting innocent people at risk". If WikiLeaks crosses the line by posting leaked documents (because AWS felt that they could Palantir has certainly crossed this line by collaborating directly with an agency that is clearly endangering vulnerable people.

Workers in all sectors continue to oppose their work being used to fuel these abuses and Amazonians are proud to support them. Wayfair employees pulled out in protest of their company's deal with ICE, while Microsoft and Salesforce employees are organizing to end their company's respective border contracts. It's time to act.

We require that Palantir be removed from AWS for violation of our Terms of Use. We called on Amazon to take a public stand against its human rights abuses and to make a statement outlining its stance against ICE camps, mass raids and evictions.

The whole world observes the abuses committed in ICE concentration camps. We know that our company should and can do better.

Join us and call to stop our collaboration with ICE by signing the letter "We will not build it".

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