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Twitter bans fake Amazon worker accounts posting anti-union messages

29 points by rualca 6y ago

kennywinker 6y ago
This seems like it should be criminal. Like setting aside the union thing, any company using fake profiles to propagandize something is dishonest and shady to the point of fraud. Paying or requiring employees to do it is only a fraction better.
- ttt0 6y ago
  They shill their product on fake accounts all the time. At least they're not shilling any politics, because that's what they usually do publicly on their real brand accounts. I don't know if it should be illegal, but the public should be definitely more aware of it, as companies are not the only ones doing it and they're frankly the least of my concerns when it comes to this.
  - spacemanmatt 6y ago
    Anti-unionism is political
  - rualca 6y ago
    > At least they're not shilling any politics, because that's what they usually do publicly on their real brand accounts. Labour and union rights is as political as it gets. Union politics shape the politics and policies of pretty much the entire development world, to the point that it frequently is behind revolutions, regime changes and in some cases even civil wars. Even the US, whose political regime is openly hostile towards workers and labour rights, already has a fair share of historical events related to union and worker's rights that are critical to its history.
orokclean 6y ago
A key thing this headlines leaves out, and many people seem to be making the wrong assumption about, is that Amazon is the one who requested these accounts be deleted because these fake accounts were not created by Amazon. In particular, the AmazonFCdarla account at the center of this mess was actually created by a “comedian” who was trying to make Amazon look bad: https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2021/3/31/22359338/amazon-darla-anti-union-worker-bessemer-alabama-comedian-parody https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2021/3/31/22359338/ama...
- tweetle_beetle 6y ago
  Fair enough, but there is a very clear trend that informs the assumptions. This "mess" would only have been the tip of the iceberg of anti-union activities. I would not be surprised if they had been manipulating social media in a more subtle way. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26635652 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26635652 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20602962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20602962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26010662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26010662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18077434 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18077434 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25189167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25189167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14566059 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14566059 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26268147 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26268147 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26186094 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26186094 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24700936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24700936

29 points by rualca 6y ago

This seems like it should be criminal. Like setting aside the union thing, any company using fake profiles to propagandize something is dishonest and shady to the point of fraud. Paying or requiring employees to do it is only a fraction better.

ttt0 6y ago
They shill their product on fake accounts all the time. At least they're not shilling any politics, because that's what they usually do publicly on their real brand accounts. I don't know if it should be illegal, but the public should be definitely more aware of it, as companies are not the only ones doing it and they're frankly the least of my concerns when it comes to this.
- spacemanmatt 6y ago
  Anti-unionism is political
- rualca 6y ago
  > At least they're not shilling any politics, because that's what they usually do publicly on their real brand accounts. Labour and union rights is as political as it gets. Union politics shape the politics and policies of pretty much the entire development world, to the point that it frequently is behind revolutions, regime changes and in some cases even civil wars. Even the US, whose political regime is openly hostile towards workers and labour rights, already has a fair share of historical events related to union and worker's rights that are critical to its history.

orokclean 6y ago

A key thing this headlines leaves out, and many people seem to be making the wrong assumption about, is that Amazon is the one who requested these accounts be deleted because these fake accounts were not created by Amazon. In particular, the AmazonFCdarla account at the center of this mess was actually created by a “comedian” who was trying to make Amazon look bad: https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2021/3/31/22359338/amazon-darla-anti-union-worker-bessemer-alabama-comedian-parody https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2021/3/31/22359338/ama...

tweetle_beetle 6y ago
Fair enough, but there is a very clear trend that informs the assumptions. This "mess" would only have been the tip of the iceberg of anti-union activities. I would not be surprised if they had been manipulating social media in a more subtle way. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26635652 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26635652 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20602962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20602962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26010662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26010662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18077434 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18077434 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25189167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25189167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14566059 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14566059 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26268147 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26268147 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26186094 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26186094 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24700936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24700936