Hi,
[ [link removed] ]I wanted to make sure you saw this urgent petition to 2020 presidential
candidates to fight back against dangerous corporate technology monopolies
like Amazon and reckless billionaire CEOs like Jeff Bezos.
Yesterday, an expose on Amazon's low-wage platform "Mechanical Turk"
revealed that Amazon’s monopoly power is harming workers, many of whom are
disabled and have no other source of income.
Because of Amazon's monopoly power, they allow extreme low wages on this
platform -- one worker said they were only paid 50 cents to talk about the
most painful memory of their life.^1,2
Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform workers say they’ve been asked "to send
along their underwear, take photos of their feet, or to draw pictures of
their genitals. They say they have been paid to recount traumatic
instances in their lives—a cancer diagnosis, severe depression, or the
death of a loved one—often for less than a dollar."
Big technology monopolies like Amazon have severely damaged democracy and
our economy, and they’re a threat to their workers, immigrants, and the
environment.
We must get 2020 candidates involved in the fight to hold big tech
monopolies responsible for the damage they’ve created in our communities.
[ [link removed] ]Time’s running out to get 2020 candidates on the record on whether they
will fight for all of us or instead protect the private empires of a few
tech billionaires. Sign the petition to 2020 candidates urging them to
break up big tech monopolies.
Thanks for taking action to protect us from destructive tech monopolies,
Salma and the team at Demand Progress
Sources:
1. Gizmodo, "Horror Stories From Inside Amazon's Mechanical Turk,"
[ [link removed] ]January 28th, 2020.
2. The Washington Post, "Online labor markets may look competitive. They
aren’t.," [ [link removed] ]August 2nd, 2018.
(See my earlier email below for more information.)
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Jeff Bezos’ reckless empire-building is a threat to all of us.
Amazon is a threat to democracy. Jeff Bezos builds his empire by trying to
buy elections and bullying politicians who try to help the homeless.^1,2
And now Amazon has expanded its monopoly into providing election
technology -- which allows Amazon to access and store our voter
registration and voting history, including the candidates we voted for.^3
Amazon's monopoly power is out of control. Some 2020 presidential
candidates have joined grassroots calls to break up big tech companies
including Amazon -- but not all of the candidates are on board.^4
We need to get all 2020 candidates to commit to fighting back against
technology monopolies.
[ [link removed] ]Friend, we need your help if we want to have a fighting chance
against Jeff Bezos, the richest man in history. Tell 2020 candidates to
break up Amazon’s empire.
Amazon is a threat to its workers -- the company ruins the bodies of its
warehouse workers with brutal, inhumane quotas.^5
Amazon helps Trump traumatize immigrants -- it provides technology that
helps ICE cage children and conduct immigration raids.^6
Amazon uses its monopoly power to:
* rig the rules of the economy to their own advantage;
* mine and profit from our personal data;
* work us to exhaustion and injury;
* pit communities against each other;
* help deport us and cage our children;
* pollute and gentrify our neighborhoods (even threatening to fire
employees who speak up against Amazon's contributions to the
destruction of our climate);^7,8
* and corrode our democracy.
All to expand the private empire of Jeff Bezos, the richest man in
history.
And Amazon now “runs state and county election websites, stores voter
registration rolls and ballot data, facilitates overseas voting by
military personnel and helps provide live election-night results.”^9
We can’t let a corporation with as terrible a record as Amazon run our
elections. We need 2020 candidates to commit to taking action.
[ [link removed] ]Tell 2020 candidates to fight back against dangerous corporate
technology monopolies like Amazon and reckless billionaire CEOs like Jeff
Bezos.
We can win this. Pressure from political leaders and the grassroots is
working.
Some 2020 candidates have joined grassroots calls for a break up of
dangerous big tech monopolies. The Federal Trade Commission has widened
the scope of the antitrust investigation of Amazon,^10 and Congress has
led a series of investigations into the danger of big tech monopolies.^11
And Demand Progress has been working behind the scenes for months to help
launch Athena, a coalition of three dozen grassroots organizations leading
the resistance to Amazon.^12
Athena coalition members have already secured key victories together. But
if we’re going to win big, we need all 2020 candidates to commit to
breaking up big tech.
[ [link removed] ]Tell 2020 candidates: Rein in the danger of big tech monopolies like
Amazon and commit to breaking up big tech.
Thanks for defending the future of our democracy and economy,
Salma and the team at Demand Progress
[ [link removed] ]DONATE
Sources:
1. The Atlantic, "How Amazon Helped Kill a Seattle Tax on Business,"
[ [link removed] ]June 13th, 2018.
2. Mother Jones, "Amazon Spent a Ton of Money on Seattle Elections. It
Probably Wasn’t Worth It.," [ [link removed] ]November 8th, 2019.
3. Reuters, "How Amazon.com moved into the business of U.S. elections,"
[ [link removed] ]October 15th, 2019.
4. Reuters, "Where U.S. presidential candidates stand on breaking up Big
Tech," [ [link removed] ]October 29th, 2019.
5. The Verge, "‘Beat the Machine’: Amazon warehouse workers strike to
protest inhumane conditions," [ [link removed] ]July 16th, 2019.
6. Mijente, "New Report Exposes Tech & Data Companies Behind ICE,"
[ [link removed] ]October 23rd, 2018.
7. BBC News, "Amazon 'threatens to fire' climate change activists,"
[ [link removed] ]January 3rd, 2020.
8. Partnership for Working Families, "Bad Deal, Bad Company, Bad
Billionaire: How Proposed Taxpayer Subsidies for Amazon HQ2 Can Still Be
Stopped," [ [link removed] ]December 19th, 2018.
9. Reuters, "How Amazon.com moved into the business of U.S. elections,"
[ [link removed] ]October 15th, 2019.
10. Bloomberg, "Amazon Faces Widening U.S. Antitrust Scrutiny in Cloud
Business," [ [link removed] ]December 4th, 2019.
11. U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, "Investigation of Competition
in Digital Markets," [ [link removed] ]Accessed December 18th, 2019.
12. The New York Times, "Activists Build a Grass-Roots Alliance Against
Amazon," [ [link removed] ]November 26th, 2019.
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