No Safety with Surveillance is an 11-minute call-to-action to anyone who cares about racial justice, civil and human rights: the video explores Big Tech’s dangerous surveillance profit model through the lens of three leading experts.
Shareholders Target Social Media Ad Buyers Over Civil Rights Concerns for First Time
For the first time, shareholder resolutions have been filed with companies that advertise or manage major ad budgets on Facebook and other social media companies, citing concerns with how advertisers may have inadvertently financed the spread of white supremacy, disinformation, voter suppression, government censorship, and more on social media platforms. The resolutions—filed with top online advertiser Home Depot and ad agency holding company Omnicom—call on the companies to commission third-party reports investigating whether their ad buys contribute to “violations of civil or human rights” on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Civil Rights Leaders Announce Principles to Protect Civil Rights and Technology
Shareholders Say Amazon's Moratorium on Facial Recognition Isn't Enough
JUNE 11, 2020 — Following intense pressure from shareholders and media justice and civil rights organizations, Amazon announced yesterday that it will impose a one-year moratorium on police use of Rekognition, the company’s highly-criticized and racially biased facial recognition technology. In response to the company’s announcement yesterday, Michael Connor, Executive Director of Open MIC––a non-profit that works with shareholders to foster corporate accountability in the tech sector––said, “This is welcome news after years of shareholders’ organizing to push Amazon to end sales of harmful, unregulated technology to police. But it’s only a temporary moratorium, and it doesn’t address deeper concerns that shareholders have regarding Amazon’s role in a rapidly-developing surveillance economy.”
Facebook and Amazon Shareholder Votes Reflect Concern Over Governance, Political Advertising, Surveillance and Civil Rights
NEW YORK CITY - June 1, 2020 – Shareholders of Facebook and Amazon (whose names are not Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos) are sending an important message regarding a host of serious concerns affecting corporate governance, political advertising, facial recognition, surveillance and other critical civil rights issues.
Shareholders Want to Know What Exactly Google is Censoring to Appease Governments
Azzad Asset Management and other investors in Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, have filed a shareholder proposal seeking details on what content the company removes in response to government requests, which will be voted on at the company’s annual meeting on June 3.
Senators Ask Facebook’s Zuckerberg to Address Civil and Human Rights Concerns Ahead of 2020 Election
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Robert Menendez, Kamala Harris and Richard Blumenthal today released the text of a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg which echoes shareholder concerns over the social media platform’s policy regarding disinformation, “specifically as it pertains to hate speech, discriminatory targeting and the threats such disinformation poses to civil rights and voting rights in advance of the 2020 election.”
Shareholders Want Google to Protect — Not Punish — Employees Who Voice Human Rights Concerns
Leading up to the June 3 annual meeting of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, investors have filed a shareholder proposal asking the company’s Board of Directors to evaluate its whistleblower protection policy, and to improve company practices to ensure the protection of employees who raise concerns about human rights abuses and other threats to the public interest.
Relentlessly Reckless: Does Amazon Care that its Customers use its Surveillance Tech to Violate Human Rights?
After Amazon tried—and failed—to block a resolution filed by shareholders asking the company’s Board of Directors to conduct an independent review of the effectiveness of Amazon’s customer due diligence process, including whether customers’ use of Amazon products results in human rights violations.
Shareholders Tell Google and Facebook: Confronting Your Civil Rights Failures Includes Fixing Your Boards
Citing a host of concerns about social media platforms and their global impact on civil and human rights, shareholders have filed proposals at Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Facebook and Twitter asking the companies to establish Director-level oversight and expertise on those issues. Shareholders are concerned by big tech’s ongoing negligence around enabling racism and discrimination online and threatening the human rights of consumers worldwide.