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NPR, Fight for the Future, No Music for ICE, Twitter

Hundreds of Musicians Pledge to Cut Ties With Amazon

Oct 24, 2019  •  Post A Comment

A lot of musicians are angry with Amazon, with more than 380 of them pledging in an open letter today to cut all business ties with the company over the work of its huge Amazon Web Services subsidiary, NPR reports.

The musicians, including well-known indie artists such as Ted Leo, Deerhoof, Damon & Naomi, Zola Jesus, Downtown Boys and Sheer Mag, outlined their beef with Amazon in an open letter sent out Thursday.

“The letter, organized in part by the activist group Fight For The Future and the public introduction to No Music For ICE, was spurred by AWS’ plans for a music festival called Intersect,” NPR reports. “The letter demands that AWS cancel all contracts with independent business and government agencies, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol, over human rights abuses it alleges they have committed.”

The letter also demands that Amazon end work on “projects that encourage racial profiling and discrimination,” such as facial recognition technology.

“Amazon’s connection to ICE is through the database services it provides to Palantir, a data analytics company which has contracts with the agency,” NPR notes.

The report quotes the musicians saying in the letter: “We will not allow Amazon to exploit our creativity to promote its brand while it enables attacks on immigrants, communities of color, workers, and local economies. We call on all artists who believe in basic rights and human dignity to join us.”

2 Comments

  1. Amazon’s music service is not a major driver of the companies profits. And neither are T-shirt sales from band concerts. AWS is its key profit maker. It is hard to intimidate someone when you have no leverage.

  2. Well this is new. Facial recognition technology used for security is racial profiling. Seems these artists need a little education.

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