Like an ostrich, Amazon is keeping its head in the sand when it comes to digital rights harms. Illustration by Onot, via Shutterstock.
This is the RADAR, Ranking Digital Rights’ newsletter. This special edition was sent on April 21, 2021. Subscribe here to get The RADAR by email.
Between its efforts to quash labor organizing at a warehouse in Alabama and recent whistleblower accusations concerning the company’s poor data security practices, Amazon has made more than its share of headlines lately.
We know from these reports, and from our own research, that Amazon’s policies and practices are failing to meet human rights standards. In the 2020 RDR Index, the e-commerce giant scored only 20 out of 100 possible points, ranking dead last among digital platforms, and way behind other U.S.-based companies we evaluate. The company offers no evidence of conducting any due diligence or oversight around digital rights risks and harms. And Amazon was the only digital platform in the 2020 RDR Index to disclose no information of substance about its internal data security processes.
Data from Indicator P13 in the 2020 RDR Index.
These findings should raise red flags for anyone who cares about how Big Tech business practices affect the public interest, but given the stark contrast between Amazon and its U.S. peers, they may be especially noteworthy for one of our key stakeholder groups: investors. Investors reaped record returns from Amazon last year – but at what cost to society?
Investors need an updated digital rights playbook for 2021
Today, we’re releasing a new issue of our investor update: a digital rights playbook for 2021. In this edition, RDR Founding Director Rebecca MacKinnon and coauthors Maya Villasenor and Melissa Brown predict that tech giants’ market dominance will be challenged this year, leaving investors increasingly exposed to digital rights risks as companies continue to fail on basic metrics of governance and accountability.
The authors single out Amazon for its poor showing on basic standards for respecting digital rights, exacerbated by an apparent reluctance (on display in its Q4 2020 earnings call) to address serious concerns that policymakers, advocates, and investors alike have raised about its business practices. “More than any other company,” they write, “Amazon has its head buried in the sand.”
They also look at regulatory shifts on the horizon in the U.S. and EU, opportunities for investors to promote respect for digital rights at companies headquartered outside the U.S. and EU, and digital rights-related shareholder resolutions expected in 2021. We continue to track annual shareholder resolutions related to digital rights on our website.
Read the Spring 2021 Investor Update.
The problem is the business model: Our op-ed for Tech Policy Press
U.S. lawmakers have come a long way since the 2016 hearing in which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg famously schooled Senator Orrin Hatch on the company’s business model, uttering: “Senator, we run ads.”
During a March 25 hearing on disinformation, which featured testimony from Zuckerberg, alongside Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, we were gratified to see members of Congress, including House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, citing arguments from our 2020 “It’s the Business Model” report series. Indeed, ads—and algorithms that drive ad targeting—are the business model.
In a recent op-ed for Tech Policy Press, RDR Editorial Director Ellery Roberts Biddle argues that while more Big Tech giants may be ‘talking the talk’ with regard to human rights and the public interest, their actions tell another story. She cites RDR’s research, showing poor performances on human rights due diligence across the industry, and points out that Facebook’s new human rights policy makes no mention of advertising, in spite of the fact that it accounts for more than 99% of the company’s revenue. Biddle writes:
Companies are choosing profit over the public interest and deliberately concealing how they build their algorithmically-driven ad systems. This is not just about trade secrets or bad actors. It is about their fundamental goal: growth.
Read via Tech Policy Press
RDR media hits
Le Monde: Internet Sans Frontières’ Julie Owono writes that nonprofit research groups and civil society at large have a major role to play in holding companies accountable to the public interest. In a piece for the French daily, Owono cites RDR’s research in asserting that companies must open up their algorithmic systems for an independent audit. Read via Le Monde (en français)
The Guardian: In an opinion piece arguing that Silicon Valley’s most astute critics are women, tech historian John Naughton lists RDR’s Rebecca MacKinnon, alongside other experts including Timnit Gebru, Lina Khan, Safiya Noble, and others. Read via The Guardian
MSNBC: In an opinion piece, Human Rights Watch’s Yaqiu Wang writes that “in the age of government versus Big Tech, we already know which side will win out in China. Big Tech never even stood a chance.” To support her argument, she cites our research on China’s tech giants. Read via MSNBC
Where to find us
Global Solutions Summit | Protecting liberal discourse and values on the internet
May 27-28 | Register here
Rebecca MacKinnon will speak at the Global Solutions Summit, where participants will discuss how technology and corporate responsibility can play a role in building a more sustainable and resilient ‘new normal’ as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Summit is hosted in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection.
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