To mark the one year anniversary of Amazon’s extended temporary moratorium on sales of its controversial Rekognition facial identification software to law enforcement agencies, over 20 advocacy groups and more than 10,000 supporters on Thursday launched Protest Amazon, a digital demonstration that’s part of the #EyesOnAmazon week of action. Myaisha Hayes, Campaign Strategies Director at MediaJustice, explains in Common Dreams.
“Amazon’s recent decision to silently extend the moratorium on selling their racist and biased surveillance facial recognition tool to the police shows the company understands the public is mobilized against the danger [its] Rekognition technology poses. Amazon must make their moratorium on keeping Rekognition out of the hands of law enforcement permanent and extend that policy to all of their surveillance products. This #EyesonAmazon week, thousands who have risen up for a world beyond policing, and pushed forward limits on the use of facial recognition in at least seven states and two dozen cities, are calling out Amazon for compromising the safety of Black and brown communities for profit.”
Myaisha Hayes via Common Dreams
