Amazon Facing Calls to Ban Police Use of Facial Recognition + More
Amazon Facing Calls From Civil Rights Groups to Permanently Ban Police Use of Facial Recognition as Deadline Approaches
Civil rights groups are calling on Amazon to permanently ban use of its facial recognition software, as an approaching deadline looms on the future of the technology.
In an open letter addressed to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and incoming CEO Andy Jassy, 44 civil rights groups pointed to ongoing instances of police violence against the Black community as evidence that Amazon should stop selling facial recognition technology to law enforcement.
“As a company, Amazon has a choice to make: Will you continue to profit from selling surveillance technology to law enforcement? Or will you stand for Black lives and divest from giving law enforcement these harmful tools?” said the letter, which was published Monday.
If You Don’t Want Robotic Dogs Patrolling the Streets, Consider CCOPS Legislation
Boston Dynamics’ robot “dogs,” or similar versions thereof, are already being employed by police departments in Hawaii, Massachusetts and New York. Partly through the veil of experimentation, few answers are being given by these police forces about the benefits and costs of using these powerful surveillance devices.
The American Civil Liberties Union, in a position paper on CCOPS (community control over police surveillance), proposes an act to promote transparency and protect civil rights and liberties with respect to surveillance technology. To date, 19 U.S. cities have passed CCOPS laws, which means, in practical terms, that virtually all other communities don’t have a requirement that police are transparent about their use of surveillance technologies.
News Publishers Should Have the Ability to Fight for Fair Compensation From Big Tech. Congress Can Help.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported:
Quality local journalism is essential for democracy, but for years the work of this news organization and others around the country have been victimized by the dominant practices of a few Big Tech companies.
Tech giants like Google and Facebook benefit from local news produced by newsrooms like ours, but they don’t return that value to us. That is a serious threat to the economic viability of local news organizations.
To give local publishers a fair shake, members of the Wisconsin congressional delegation, along with their colleagues, should support the “Journalism Competition and Preservation Act.”
Big Tech’s Reputation Takes a Pandemic Plunge
Americans have fallen further out of love with Big Tech, the latest Axios/Harris 100 brand reputation poll shows.
Why it matters: Even though Americans were hyper-connected to their devices throughout the pandemic, their relationship with many of the world’s biggest tech firms has continued on a downward trend, suggesting that people see their products as necessary evils.
Social media leaders Facebook and Twitter failed to improve their standing near the bottom of the list, despite their role in helping users stay connected through pandemic-era isolation.
Gregg Jarrett: It’s Time to Crush Big Tech Censorship Before Facebook, Twitter and Others Crush Us
Never before has so much power been held by so few. And never before has that power been so egregiously abused.
The censorship applied to American news consumers by Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Google, and Apple must be broken up. They have evolved into massive monopolies that pose a grave danger to democracy by suppressing speech with which they disagree.
The staggering wealth and unbridled power of these tech giants allow them to punish political adversaries and protect partisan allies. They do so with impunity and no regard for the public interest. Examples abound.
The post Amazon Facing Calls to Ban Police Use of Facial Recognition + More appeared first on Children's Health Defense.
© 13 May 2021 Children’s Health Defense, Inc. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of Children’s Health Defense, Inc. Want to learn more from Children’s Health Defense? Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Children’s Health Defense. Your donation will help to support us in our efforts.
