Amazon.com Inc plans to require a more proactive approach to work out what sorts of content violate its cloud service policies, like rules against promoting violence, and enforce its removal, consistent with two sources, a move likely to renew debate about what proportion power tech companies should need to restrict free speech.
Over the approaching months, Amazon will hire a little group of individuals in its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division to develop expertise and work with outside researchers to watch for future threats, one among the sources conversant in the matter said.
It could turn Amazon, the leading cloud service provider worldwide with a 40 per cent market share consistent with research firm Gartner, into one among the world’s most powerful arbiters of content allowed on the web , experts say.
A day after the publication of this story, an AWS spokesperson told Reuters that the news agency’s reporting “is wrong,” and added, “AWS Trust & Safety has no plans to vary its policies or processes, and therefore the team has always existed.” A Reuters spokesperson said the press agency stands by its reporting.
Amazon made headlines within the Washington Post last week for shutting down an internet site hosted on AWS that featured propaganda from Islamic State that celebrated the bombing that killed an estimated 170 Afghans and 13 US troops in Kabul. They did so after the news agency contacted Amazon, consistent with the Post.
The proactive approach to content comes after Amazon kicked social media app Parler off its cloud service shortly after the Jan 6 Capitol riot for allowing content promoting violence.
Amazon declined to comment before the publication of the story Reuters published last week. After publication, an AWS spokesperson said later that day, “AWS Trust & Safety works to guard AWS customers, partners, and internet users from bad actors attempting to use our services for abusive or illegal purposes. When AWS Trust & Safety is formed conscious of abusive or illegal behaviour on AWS services, they act quickly to research and have interaction with customers to require appropriate actions.” The spokesperson added that “AWS Trust & Safety doesn’t pre-review content hosted by our customers. As AWS continues to expand, we expect this team to still grow.”
Activists and human rights groups are increasingly holding not just websites and apps in charge of harmful content, but also the underlying tech infrastructure that permits those sites to work , while political conservatives decry what they consider the curtailing of free speech.
AWS already prohibits its services from getting used during a sort of ways, like illegal or fraudulent activity, to incite or threaten violence or promote child sexual exploitation and abuse, consistent with its acceptable use policy.
Amazon first requests customers remove content violating its policies or have a system to moderate content. If Amazon cannot reach a suitable agreement with the customer, it’s going to take down the web site .
Amazon aims to develop an approach toward content issues that it and other cloud providers are more frequently confronting, like determining when misinformation on a company’s website reaches a scale that needs AWS action, the source said.
The new team within AWS doesn’t decide to sift through the vast amounts of content that companies host on the cloud, but will aim to urge before future threats, like emerging extremist groups whose content could make it onto the AWS cloud, the source added.
A job posting on Amazons jobs website advertising for an edge to be the “Global Head of Policy at AWS Trust & Safety,” which was last seen by Reuters before the publication of this story last week, was not available on the Amazon site.
The ad, which remains available on LinkedIn, describes the new role together who will “identify policy gaps and propose scalable solutions,” “develop frameworks to assess risk and guide decision-making,” and “develop efficient issue escalation mechanisms.” The LinkedIn ad also says the position will “make clear recommendations to AWS leadership.” The Amazon spokesperson said the work posting on Amazon’s website was temporarily faraway from the Amazon website for editing and will not are posted in its draft form.
AWS’s offerings include cloud storage and virtual servers and counts major companies like Netflix, Coca-Cola and Capital One as clients, consistent with its website.
Proactive moves
Better preparation against certain sorts of content could help Amazon avoid legal and PR risks.
“If (Amazon) can get a number of these things off proactively before it’s discovered and becomes an enormous news article , there’s value in avoiding that reputational damage,” said Melissa Ryan, founding father of CARD Strategies, a consulting company that helps organisations understand extremism and online toxicity threats.
Cloud services like AWS and other entities like domain registrars are considered the “backbone of the web ,” but have traditionally been politically neutral services, consistent with a 2019 report from Joan Donovan, a Harvard researcher who studies online extremism and disinformation campaigns.
But cloud services providers have removed content before, like within the aftermath of the 2017 alt-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, helping to slow the organising ability of alt-right groups, Donovan wrote.
“Most of those companies have understandably not wanted to urge into content and not eager to be the arbiter of thought,” Ryan said. “But when you’re talking about hate and extremism, you’ve got to require a stance.”
