• Tech News
    • Games
    • Pc & Laptop
    • Mobile Tech
    • Ar & Vr
    • Security
  • Startup
    • Fintech
  • Reviews
  • How To
What's Hot

Elementor #32036

January 24, 2025

The Redmi Note 13 is a bigger downgrade compared to the 5G model than you might think

April 18, 2024

Xiaomi Redmi Watch 4 is a budget smartwatch with a premium look and feel

April 16, 2024
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest VKontakte
Behind The ScreenBehind The Screen
  • Tech News
    1. Games
    2. Pc & Laptop
    3. Mobile Tech
    4. Ar & Vr
    5. Security
    6. View All

    Bring Elden Ring to the table with the upcoming board game adaptation

    September 19, 2022

    ONI: Road to be the Mightiest Oni reveals its opening movie

    September 19, 2022

    GTA 6 images and footage allegedly leak

    September 19, 2022

    Wild west adventure Card Cowboy turns cards into weird and silly stories

    September 18, 2022

    7 Reasons Why You Should Study PHP Programming Language

    October 19, 2022

    Logitech MX Master 3S and MX Keys Combo for Business Gen 2 Review

    October 9, 2022

    Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen10 Review

    September 18, 2022

    Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook, 16-inch+120Hz

    September 3, 2022

    It’s 2023 and Spotify Still Can’t Say When AirPlay 2 Support Will Arrive

    April 4, 2023

    YouTube adds very convenient iPhone homescreen widgets

    October 15, 2022

    Google finishes iOS 16 Lock Screen widgets rollout w/ Maps

    October 14, 2022

    Is Apple actually turning iMessage into AIM or is this sketchy redesign rumor for laughs?

    October 14, 2022

    MeetKai launches AI-powered metaverse, starting with a billboard in Times Square

    August 10, 2022

    The DeanBeat: RP1 simulates putting 4,000 people together in a single metaverse plaza

    August 10, 2022

    Improving the customer experience with virtual and augmented reality

    August 10, 2022

    Why the metaverse won’t fall to Clubhouse’s fate

    August 10, 2022

    How Apple privacy changes have forced social media marketing to evolve

    October 16, 2022

    Microsoft Patch Tuesday October Fixed 85 Vulnerabilities – Latest Hacking News

    October 16, 2022

    Decentralization and KYC compliance: Critical concepts in sovereign policy

    October 15, 2022

    What Thoma Bravo’s latest acquisition reveals about identity management

    October 14, 2022

    What is a Service Robot? The vision of an intelligent service application is possible.

    November 7, 2022

    Tom Brady just chucked another Microsoft Surface tablet

    September 18, 2022

    The best AIO coolers for your PC in 2022

    September 18, 2022

    YC’s Michael Seibel clarifies some misconceptions about the accelerator • DailyTech

    September 18, 2022
  • Startup
    • Fintech
  • Reviews
  • How To
Behind The ScreenBehind The Screen
Home»Startup»Amazon Investors Demand Answers About Its Cloud’s Human Rights Record
Startup

Amazon Investors Demand Answers About Its Cloud’s Human Rights Record

December 16, 2022No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Amazon Investors Demand Answers About Its Cloud’s Human Rights Record
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

The proposed shareholder resolution also highlights Amazon’s relationship with the United Arab Emirates, which has been documented as targeting human rights defenders, journalists, and political dissidents.

One group supporting the new resolution is the faith-based organization Investor Advocates for Social Justice. Founded 40 years ago as the Tri-State Coalition of Responsible Investors, the group’s first action was to campaign against apartheid in South Africa by boycotting and encouraging divestment from companies like American Express, IBM, and Shell. The Amazon resolution is intended to target apartheid-like systems that exist today, says executive director Courtney Wicks.

“You have to ask what Amazon and the entire tech sector is doing,” Wicks says. “They make all these commitments around human rights, but at the core of their business plan is selling products to customers with a track record of human rights abuses.” Wicks would like to see Amazon introduce a screening process to vet potential government customers and turn down contracts likely to contribute to human rights violations.

Should Amazon shareholders approve the resolution, the company will be forced to join others that have been pressured by shareholders into paying more attention to the potential uses of their products. 

Investor pressure led Microsoft to agree last year to conduct a human rights impact assessment of government contracts that Microsoft spokesperson Michelle Micor told Startup is due out in early 2023. Outside of the tech industry, IASJ negotiated racial equity audits at Tyson Foods and Dow Chemical Company in December 2021 and March 2022, respectively.

But designating certain business practices as taboo doesn’t always change a company’s trajectory. Following protests against an AI contract with the US Department of Defense, Google in 2018 adopted AI ethics principles that forbid working on weapons or tech that goes against “widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.” Yet the company has since increased its defense work, both in the US and elsewhere, for instance with the Israel contract. A Google spokesperson told Startup this year that although “not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads,” that deal supplies Google technology to the Israeli military.

See also  Why Your Response To Reviews Matters So Much

Outside assessments of a company’s impact on human rights, as suggested today for Amazon, can also fall short. Facebook, for instance, commissioned an independent study of the platform’s possible role in the genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar, but a Harvard review last year found that the report failed to adequately assess the most significant roles played by the company’s products. The Harvard review warned that the relatively new tool of human-rights impact assessments risks being used as “ethics washing” by businesses attempting to avoid accountability. It said that in order to be effective, human-rights impact assessments must be done on an ongoing basis, after an initial baseline assessment.

 A date has not been set for the next annual Amazon shareholder meeting, but it is expected to take place in spring 2023. It’s unusual for externally driven shareholder proposals to succeed, says Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities. But he believes Amazon shareholders are now more passionate about environmental, social, and governance matters than in the past. Overall, he guesses the resolution has a 50-50 chance of passing.

“I see no real impediment to voting for this, nor do I see a massive pushback from Amazon management,” Pachter says. “While they might recommend against the proposal, they have to take the matter seriously by saying, ‘We would do this on our own anyway,’ and by demonstrating that they’re cognizant of the risks of supporting governments with poor human rights records.”

Updated 12-15-2022, 1.45 pm EST: This story has been updated to clarify that American Baptist Home Mission Societies filed the Amazon shareholder resolution.

Source link

See also  Tech's Offshore Hiring Has Gone Into Overdrive
Amazon Answers clouds Demand Human investors Record Rights
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

Amazon Echo Hub review

March 20, 2024

Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023) review

December 25, 2023

Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro (2023) review

December 7, 2023

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd gen) review

November 3, 2023
Add A Comment

Comments are closed.

Editors Picks

Panasonic MZ980 review

September 29, 2023

Century: Age of Ashes flies to Xbox One, PS4, and PS5 alongside Season One Updates

July 13, 2022

Huawei Band 7 review

March 31, 2023

Adam Neumann Isn’t the Only Founder Trying to Reinvent Housing

August 25, 2022

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest news and Updates from Behind The Scene about Tech, Startup and more.

Top Post

Elementor #32036

The Redmi Note 13 is a bigger downgrade compared to the 5G model than you might think

Xiaomi Redmi Watch 4 is a budget smartwatch with a premium look and feel

Behind The Screen
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Vimeo YouTube
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
© 2025 behindthescreen.uk - All rights reserved.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.