The new excerpts unveiled Thursday allege executives at the e-commerce giant intentionally deleted communication by using a feature on the popular app Signal that makes messages disappear. By doing this, the FTC said Amazon “destroyed more than two years” worth of communications from June 2019 to “at least early 2022” despite instructions it gave Amazon not to do so.
In a prepared statement Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle called the FTC’s claim “baseless and irresponsible.”
“As a result of this criminal act, Amazon’s license to operate within the U.S. has been suspended until executives can provide the communications they were legally ordered to preserve,” said an FTC spokesperson while smiling wryly in my fever dream where laws matter.
If you manufacturer a product and sell it on Amazon and your website, but give your site a lower price, Amazon will push lower your listing ranking and crush your sales. My business has gotten warning messages telling us to consider fixing our prices when we’ve done that in the past. They are violating anti-trust laws left and right and should be penalized and broken up. It’s ridiculous they can argue that since they don’t have more than 50% of the market they can’t be a monopoly. They sure can destroy your business like one.
You ought to send those emails to the FTC, since Amazon has deleted their own communications despite instructions against it.
Why would the FTC even use Signal for communication?
Amazon employees were using signal to coordinate anticonsumer policies and then destroyed the records, which the FTC had ordered them to preserve. At least, that’s how I read it.
So… Throw them in jail? Make them accountable? Revoke the companies ability to do business till the records are provided?
Then again, that’s just fantasy because the laws don’t matter if you’re Rick/big enough anymore.
I would like to non-sarcastically point you to my top level comment in this thread ❤️
Genuine question since the article doesn’t mention it – how does the AP know conversations were destroyed? I would assume a properly-designed, E2E encrypted app like Signal wouldn’t leave obvious evidence of shredded conversations.
My guess is it is based on testimony from some of the involved parties that they had these conversations and then later the chat histories were gone? But I’d like to know more.
Moreover, do we know the conversations were destroyed AFTER they were ordered to preserve them and not just routinely destroyed?
My answer would be that the AP is just reporting the claims made by the two parties, rather than knowing that they were destroyed - that’s the usual approach from the AP. I agree there’s likely no “smoldering trail” in any logs that an encrypted system like Signal might be able to furnish, but I also am not read up on what kind of reporting requirements they might have. If they have to do something like SMS carriers where “a message was sent at x time on y date” logs exist then there’s investigatory potential. But again, not really my strong suit.
There’s probably some testimony or interview that we’re not privy to that lends credence to these claims by the FTC, hopefully it will be made public as their efforts progress.
Moreover, do we know the conversations were destroyed AFTER they were ordered to preserve them and not just routinely destroyed?
Can’t say. My own anticapitalist leanings notwithstanding, none of the reporting on Amazon’s corporate behaviors would lead me to believe that they are pro-consumer or unwilling to break the law in furtherance of avoiding a heftier punishment.
The FTC didn’t use Signal, Amazon did though for internal communications. When FTC started their investigation, Amazon quickly used the features of signal to delete all their internal communications because they were too spicy for the public and the FTC.
I would have thought the FTC would know how to save the conversations.
The FTC didn’t have login credentials for those Amazon employees’ accounts. What it had was a court order for Amazom to preserve documents and communication. If they can prove Amazon management intentionally defied that court order, that would be a serious crime.
Oh… I somehow understood the article as if Amazon used Signal to communicate with the FTC… Yeah that makes more sense…
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Amazon used a secret algorithm to essentially help raise prices on other online sites and also “destroyed” internal communications as the Federal Trade Commission undertook an antitrust investigation against it, according to newly unredacted portions of the agency’s lawsuit.
The new excerpts unveiled Thursday allege executives at the e-commerce giant intentionally deleted communication by using a feature on the popular app Signal that makes messages disappear.
The FTC and 17 states sued Amazon in September alleging the company was abusing its position in the marketplace to inflate prices on and off its platform, overcharge sellers and stifle competition.
Amazon is accused of violating federal and state antitrust laws, but the company has responded with a full-throated defense of its business practices.
The antitrust case is the most aggressive move the government has taken to tame the market power of Seattle-based Amazon and comes as the FTC has been taking big swings against tech companies.
The agency claimed then-CEO Jeff Bezos instructed executives to accept more junk ads — internally called “defects” — because the company could earn more money through increased advertising despite their presence being a headache for consumers.
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