
Amazon Uses a Twitter Army of Employees to Fight Criticism of Warehouses - johnny313
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/style/amazon-fc-ambassadors.html
======
kl4m
Related:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20704138](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20704138)

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savrajsingh
I believe this article was triggered by this tweet:
[https://twitter.com/rulesobeyer/status/1161820065773182976?s...](https://twitter.com/rulesobeyer/status/1161820065773182976?s=21)

~~~
komali2
That's like a god damned parody. A new response every time from a happy
smiling human face. It's ok, Diana, we just want the truth to be heard, Diana,
why don't you believe us Diana, I am treated well at work Diana, I am not
beaten when I misbehave.

Join us Diana. Join us and be free.

Edit: oh my God. I made up the beatings comment on the spot. But one of the
borg _actually said something like this_
[https://twitter.com/antipoetry/status/1162028572929855488?s=...](https://twitter.com/antipoetry/status/1162028572929855488?s=20)

Edit2: oh whew obvious parody. Hilarious, nearly fell for it!

~~~
brocket
His account is violating Twitter's impersonation policy.
[https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-
imper...](https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-
impersonation-policy)

> The profile clearly states it is not affiliated with or connected to any
> similarly-named individuals or brands.

~~~
detuur
What's Twitter's policy on using fake accounts with stock picture avatars for
openly astroturfing?

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Jerry2
Whenever I see a news story about Amazon workers and robots, I'm reminded of
Amazon's "workers in a cage" patent [1]. It has spawned a bunch of funny (or
sad?) "Amazon Wagie Cage" memes as a result [2][3]... and even an art exhibit
of a real-sized patent drawing [4].

Needless to say, I shop a lot less on Amazon these days and try to buy from
other shops whenever possible.

[1] [https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-has-
pate...](https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-has-patented-a-
system-that-would-put-workers-in-a-cage-on-top-of-a-robot/)

[2] [https://i.imgur.com/QGeNley.png](https://i.imgur.com/QGeNley.png)

[3] [https://i.imgur.com/LuEpNL4.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/LuEpNL4.jpg)

[4] [https://i.imgur.com/EhoEHqG.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/EhoEHqG.jpg)

~~~
cperciva
_Amazon 's "workers in a cage" patent_

You do realize that the cage is there to protect the worker, right?

If you think "worker in a cage, on top of a robot" is terrible, have you ever
seen a construction crane? It is literally a robot with a cage in which a
worker sits -- and just like the (never implemented!) patent from Amazon, the
point of the cage is to protect the worker.

~~~
im3w1l
Having a comfy chair instead of a metal bench and glass instead of wire net
makes cranes look a lot nicer than that concept art.

~~~
cperciva
Aren't patent drawings supposed to show only the essential _functional_
elements?

~~~
im3w1l
Maybe. I personally think it's silly. Still, that's where I think the critique
comes from.

------
Deimorz
I think this article from bellingcat earlier today is better overall:
[https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2019/08/15/amazons-...](https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2019/08/15/amazons-
online-bezos-brigade-unleashed-on-twitter/)

Here's the list of account names using Sprinklr that was mentioned in the NYT
article:
[https://twitter.com/AlexBNewhouse/status/1162036960027742209](https://twitter.com/AlexBNewhouse/status/1162036960027742209)

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drawkbox
Nearly all entities in products and politics astroturf heavily. In the end it
is a massive critical thinking lesson and adds much needed skepticism to the
populace.

The truth is the internet is teaching the biggest lesson ever in critical
thinking and getting your information from many sources across spectrums,
individuals, companies, countries, divides and more.

Let's hope that people see it as a lesson and not somewhere they can bask in
their confirmation bias all day, or make decisions based on fear, in those
cases the populace is easy to manipulate.

~~~
buyx
It’s great to talk about lessons in critical thinking for sophisticated first-
world countries, but in third-world, poorly educated countries, people with
poor literacy are being exposed to a firehose of propaganda.

The critical thinking lessons you mention are likely to come at the price of a
massive loss of human life.

~~~
iamaelephant
Whereas in developed intelligent countries you're all immune to this effect.
Pretty cool.

------
cryptozeus
I was waiting to see how long it will take for media to find the tweet thread
and publish as news. Man what a world we live in.

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WaxProlix
There's a bit to go through here - and I agree Amazon employees are largely
treated poorly (I work at amazon and lament the fact more or less daily) but
this is linking to some parody accounts. Let's talk about real issues, like
how Bezos could end hunger in the US and still be the richest man in the
world.

Or keep focusing on the weird customer-antagonistic inferior chinese trash
importing campaign that's been ongoing for the last few years.

This looks like a bunch of joke tweeters that got caught in each others'
schticks.

~~~
wildrhythms
>This looks like a bunch of joke tweeters that got caught in each others'
schticks.

Amazon PR email to bellingcat.com confirms that the ambassador program is
real:

[https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2019/08/15/amazons-...](https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2019/08/15/amazons-
online-bezos-brigade-unleashed-on-twitter/)

~~~
WaxProlix
I mean, yeah it's real - that's not under suspicion. Is Jordan - Amazon FC
Ambassador (with a free stock photo as his avatar) real?

Replying to "I also am required to enjoy things. I like laughing and having
fun. It is agreeable to me." with "I like smiling!"

Or "Post literally anything from this account if you're being forced to do so
against your will by your boss." with

"My boss is awesome! He’s great. I asked him if I could do this and he said
sure!"

all seems really tongue-firmly-in-cheek.

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hooande
Do we know if this is a corporate social media team, or actual employees who
volunteered? Many of the accounts claim to be warehouse workers. It's rare for
a major corporation to lie about something like that so blatantly.

I imagine that amazon employees didn't like the bad rep their company was
getting for working conditions, and volunteered to respond on social media in
an organized way. IF this is the case, then media organizations probably
shouldn't be attacking them

~~~
calcifer
So you _really_ imagine a bunch of lowest paid blue collar workers came
together, out of the goodness of their hearts, to help the richest man alive
improve his company's public image?

~~~
pochamago
I can. There are a lot of Amazon employees. Many are probably happy with their
job and unhappy to be constantly told that they shouldn't be. I think that I
would personally be annoyed by all the think pieces unilaterally claiming that
the job I chose was a sucker's game and I'm too dumb to realize, especially
since Amazon is distinctly better than average as warehouse jobs go

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sn41
There's this tweet that I find strange. One side effect of the oversold
mindfulness-stoicism outlook is that people do not raise genuine concerns and
instead say "the problem is within me, I just need to breathe right":

[https://twitter.com/AmazonFCHannah/status/116191039733676851...](https://twitter.com/AmazonFCHannah/status/1161910397336768512)

~~~
wpietri
It reminds me of a favorite quote: “It is difficult to get a man to understand
something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” -- Upton
Sinclair

A genre I used to read a lot of is the cult escapee autobiography. Humans are
incredibly good at believing whatever they need to believe to get by. And,
presumably as with Amazon, there's a strong selection bias. The people who
won't blame themselves like this don't work at Amazon for long, and if they
do, they don't get selected to be "ambassadors". The first step for which is
surely a "thank you sir may I have another" relationship [1] with their boss.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdFLPn30dvQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdFLPn30dvQ)

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ilikehurdles
Companies have been doing this for at least the last 8 years, just based on my
own experience working for a company that provided a solution in this space.
Amazon isn’t unique or even remotely the first. They’re just using one of
those social media reputation dashboards to manage complaints and support
issues before they go viral online.

~~~
sak5sk
Indeed, solutions for all needs. For example, presidential elections.
Tweetattackspro, buyaccs.com anti-captcha.com

[https://www.thedailybeast.com/i-bought-a-russian-bot-army-
fo...](https://www.thedailybeast.com/i-bought-a-russian-bot-army-for-under-
dollar100)

Anyone can start this up. Just get some bitcoin ready.

------
MikeGale
I don't really see the issue.

These appear to be real humans.

I see so many fake accounts, sock puppets etc. just about any place I look,
that I just accept that to not be an idiot myself I need to spend time
thinking through everything.

I don't understand writing that seems to assume that anybody, or their
analysis, can be automatically believed.

------
tiagobraw
most of these Twitter accounts are parody accounts, Amazon has the embassador
program but don't believe in every thing you read on Twitter

~~~
thomasz
The parody accounts are pretty obvious. The really disturbing stuff comes from
the real ones.

------
heimatau
I've seen Amazon's sponsored tweets on Twitter. Didn't realize they are going
so hard to work on their public image.

------
nerder92
I'm wondering how this even makes sense from a PR prospective.

Workers (?) that are paid for talking good about their employer? What's the
interesting bit here?

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AlexDragusin
"Amazon FC Ambassadors" seriously?

Reminds me of the missionaries carrying bibles, in this case spreading the
Lord Bezos word.

------
ramphastidae
Reading the Amazon employees’ responses in the Twitter thread made me feel
physically ill.

It’s pure propaganda, straight out of Russia’s 2016 playbook.

If companies like Amazon will dominate in the future I don’t want to have
kids.

~~~
wastman
I seriously doubt there's anything remotely grassroots about this. I find it
unlikely that Amazon is lying about the fact that the employees running these
twitter accounts are low level, but I also find it hard to believe that they
wouldn't be instantly taken off for going off script.

Also notice that each tweet is sent out by sprinklr.

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lacker
The NYT sure writes a lot of anti-Amazon stuff. I guess the Washington Post is
their main competitor and it’s owned by Jeff Bezos so it makes sense.

~~~
wildrhythms
Do you think NYT's article is inaccurate in some way?

~~~
umeshunni
You can be biased without being inaccurate.

~~~
wilg
You can also be biased without it being a bad thing.

~~~
inflatableDodo
I am biased towards hot chocolate and duvet nests and against TV programs
presented by people with sunglasses on the top of their head. Am I a monster?

------
moksly
I recently watched a Danish documentary about Israel, it’s a whole series on
the Middle East, and one of the things they talked about in it was how Israel
is never in the Danish media for anything positive. That same day I read an
article about the youngest Dane to visit every country in the world, something
he finished recently, talk about how there is peace and security in every
country if you go to the right places. Now this is anecdotal of course, but it
does seem extremely rare to see a positive story about Israel, and positive
stories about minor countries around the world don’t exist. Small countries
only make the news when some warlord does something horrendous, there is an
outbreak of some terrible disease or climate change is sinking their country.

You may be wondering what my point is, but maybe the media brought this on
themselves? I’m as appalled as you are by Amazon workers wearing diapers, and
I personally think the way they utilise the gig-economy to avoid giving
workers rights is bordering wage-slavery (I’m a socialist Dane, so I hope
you’ll forgive me for that), but Amazon is a huge company and I’m betting a
lot of people there are genuinely happy.

Imagine being those people. I work in public sector digitalisation, I think I
know a thing or two about how it feels when everyone has a negative opinion on
what you do. I makes you want to post like these Amazon employees, especially
because onlookers almost never have a clue about actually what’s going on
because the world is way too complicated to fit into a few 3-6 paragraph
articles on the web.

~~~
AlexMuir
I think you’ve been downvoted here because there isn’t really a clear point to
your comment. Perfectly written but having read I don’t know what you are
actually saying.

~~~
moksly
I was trying to say, that maybe the media is seeing this backlash, not because
of some Amazon marketing army, but instead because a lot of people are
genuinely happy working for Amazon.

