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Leaked Document Reveals Amazon’s Twitter Army Was Handpicked for “Humor”

46 points by marricks 6y ago

Bluestein 6y ago
"Amazon ambassadors were trained to defend Jeff Bezos and clap back at Bernie Sanders under a program codenamed 'Veritas.'" Veritas. The irony ... Edit: meant to add ... > “To address speculation and false assertions in social media and online forums about the quality of the FC [Fulfillment Center] associate experience ..." Experience. It's not work. It is an "experience". Like a cruise, or a brand new TV. (And you are not a grunt. You are an "associate". You have equity. You matter. The bottle you pee in matters too ...)
- rasz 6y ago
  George Carlin - Euphemisms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuEQixrBKCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuEQixrBKCc
  - Bluestein 6y ago
    There's no telling how much I miss that man ...
- jfengel 6y ago
  That's a bit distressing, actually. "Veritas" is Harvard's motto, and perhaps they were influenced by that. But perhaps better known is Project Veritas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Veritas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Veritas To quote Wikipedia's description: The group produces deceptively edited videos of its undercover operations, which use secret recordings to allege misconduct and corruption in mainstream media organizations and progressive groups. Project Veritas uses entrapment to generate bad publicity for its targets, and has propagated disinformation and conspiracy theories in its videos and operations.
  - ALittleLight 6y ago
    Veritas is Latin for truth. The first principle shown in the leaked document is to "tell your truth". I expect the name is chosen for that meaning rather than an homage to Project Veritas or Harvard.
    - Bluestein 6y ago
      > "tell your truth" ... I actually hadn't connected the dots ... (Still, it must be said, to use such a "lofty" latinism for something as mundane as an astroturf campaign - when "veritas" evokes an almost "absolute" truth ... ... rubs me the wrong way.)
    - jfengel 6y ago
      They certainly know the meaning of the Latin, but these two names/mottoes are very well known. When I saw that an astroturfing campaign was called Veritas, the name Project Veritas leapt directly to mind. If I were them I'd have picked a different name. It's not a good association.
  - Bluestein 6y ago
    > Project Veritas That is one sickening use of the term, if ever have I seen one ... yuck.-
  - adamrezich 6y ago
    Good to see Wikipedia's still keeping their articles nice and neutral
    - jfengel 6y ago
      I removed the extensive footnotes to make it more readable. You can go find them at the article itself. Everything they say is well documented. This really is simply the facts of the organization. Project Veritas exists to make other organizations look bad, using false narratives. There's no way to cast that in neutral language without becoming false.
- Bluestein 6y ago
  (Heck. I think Amazon should -own- the whole urinating in a bottle thing ... ... go ahead and give one to all "Associates".- Call it the Amazon Associate Portable Potty and Lavatory Extension, "APPLE", and be done with it ... :)
  - philistine 6y ago
    And then what? Amazon has then told all its employees that their plight is less important than making a poor joke at the expense of our competitor. Those employees are people with feelings.
    - Bluestein 6y ago
      I should have used some sort of <irony> marker or something ...
rozab 6y ago
If these accounts are meant to be real people, why do so many have stock images as profile pictures?
- throwaway0a5e 6y ago
  What kind of pictures do you think people hired to be witty and funny are going to choose for their troll accounts if left to their own devices? Profile pictures probably got locked down on day 1 to prevent them from doing anything that could potentially offend anyone.
- PeterisP 6y ago
  Probably because it's more effective for a single real person to operate many accounts, and you don't want all these accounts to have your face.
ALittleLight 6y ago
I'm genuinely surprised by how bad Amazon is at this. I had assumed a super rich and tech savvy company would be better at manipulating digital conversations than Amazon appears to be. Maybe this isn't too important to Amazon and they aren't sending their A-team or putting a lot of resources into the effort. Maybe it is important and they are just getting started and will improve over time. While Amazon's tweets seem lame it is hard for me to imagine what effective pro-Amazon messaging on twitter would look like. They have to overcome the problem that complaining about your job or a company's demanding work practices is natural, defending a company is rather less natural.
- mpalmer 6y ago
  Massive companies don't do subtle well. Social manipulation is hard because it can't be obvious; certainly not as transparent as what Amazon has been doing. Even before this leak it was painfully obvious which Twitter accounts were shilling on Amazon's dime. An effective campaign would probably more closely resemble what Russia has been doing for the last 6+ years.
  - ALittleLight 6y ago
    I imagine it could be as simple as Bezos finding some trusted goon and instructing the goon to find a shady company with a history of doing this kind of thing well and then sending money based on results.

46 points by marricks 6y ago

"Amazon ambassadors were trained to defend Jeff Bezos and clap back at Bernie Sanders under a program codenamed 'Veritas.'" Veritas. The irony ... Edit: meant to add ... > “To address speculation and false assertions in social media and online forums about the quality of the FC [Fulfillment Center] associate experience ..." Experience. It's not work. It is an "experience". Like a cruise, or a brand new TV. (And you are not a grunt. You are an "associate". You have equity. You matter. The bottle you pee in matters too ...)

rasz 6y ago
George Carlin - Euphemisms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuEQixrBKCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuEQixrBKCc
- Bluestein 6y ago
  There's no telling how much I miss that man ...
jfengel 6y ago
That's a bit distressing, actually. "Veritas" is Harvard's motto, and perhaps they were influenced by that. But perhaps better known is Project Veritas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Veritas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Veritas To quote Wikipedia's description: The group produces deceptively edited videos of its undercover operations, which use secret recordings to allege misconduct and corruption in mainstream media organizations and progressive groups. Project Veritas uses entrapment to generate bad publicity for its targets, and has propagated disinformation and conspiracy theories in its videos and operations.
- ALittleLight 6y ago
  Veritas is Latin for truth. The first principle shown in the leaked document is to "tell your truth". I expect the name is chosen for that meaning rather than an homage to Project Veritas or Harvard.
  - Bluestein 6y ago
    > "tell your truth" ... I actually hadn't connected the dots ... (Still, it must be said, to use such a "lofty" latinism for something as mundane as an astroturf campaign - when "veritas" evokes an almost "absolute" truth ... ... rubs me the wrong way.)
  - jfengel 6y ago
    They certainly know the meaning of the Latin, but these two names/mottoes are very well known. When I saw that an astroturfing campaign was called Veritas, the name Project Veritas leapt directly to mind. If I were them I'd have picked a different name. It's not a good association.
- Bluestein 6y ago
  > Project Veritas That is one sickening use of the term, if ever have I seen one ... yuck.-
- adamrezich 6y ago
  Good to see Wikipedia's still keeping their articles nice and neutral
  - jfengel 6y ago
    I removed the extensive footnotes to make it more readable. You can go find them at the article itself. Everything they say is well documented. This really is simply the facts of the organization. Project Veritas exists to make other organizations look bad, using false narratives. There's no way to cast that in neutral language without becoming false.
Bluestein 6y ago
(Heck. I think Amazon should -own- the whole urinating in a bottle thing ... ... go ahead and give one to all "Associates".- Call it the Amazon Associate Portable Potty and Lavatory Extension, "APPLE", and be done with it ... :)
- philistine 6y ago
  And then what? Amazon has then told all its employees that their plight is less important than making a poor joke at the expense of our competitor. Those employees are people with feelings.
  - Bluestein 6y ago
    I should have used some sort of <irony> marker or something ...

rozab 6y ago

If these accounts are meant to be real people, why do so many have stock images as profile pictures?

throwaway0a5e 6y ago
What kind of pictures do you think people hired to be witty and funny are going to choose for their troll accounts if left to their own devices? Profile pictures probably got locked down on day 1 to prevent them from doing anything that could potentially offend anyone.
PeterisP 6y ago
Probably because it's more effective for a single real person to operate many accounts, and you don't want all these accounts to have your face.

ALittleLight 6y ago

I'm genuinely surprised by how bad Amazon is at this. I had assumed a super rich and tech savvy company would be better at manipulating digital conversations than Amazon appears to be. Maybe this isn't too important to Amazon and they aren't sending their A-team or putting a lot of resources into the effort. Maybe it is important and they are just getting started and will improve over time. While Amazon's tweets seem lame it is hard for me to imagine what effective pro-Amazon messaging on twitter would look like. They have to overcome the problem that complaining about your job or a company's demanding work practices is natural, defending a company is rather less natural.

mpalmer 6y ago
Massive companies don't do subtle well. Social manipulation is hard because it can't be obvious; certainly not as transparent as what Amazon has been doing. Even before this leak it was painfully obvious which Twitter accounts were shilling on Amazon's dime. An effective campaign would probably more closely resemble what Russia has been doing for the last 6+ years.
- ALittleLight 6y ago
  I imagine it could be as simple as Bezos finding some trusted goon and instructing the goon to find a shady company with a history of doing this kind of thing well and then sending money based on results.