Amazon to proactively remove content that violates rules from cloud service
Amazon.com Inc plans to take a more proactive approach to
determine what types of content violate its cloud service policies, such as
rules against promoting violence, and enforce its removal, according to two
sources, a move likely to renew debate about how much power tech companies
should have to restrict free speech.
Over the coming months, Amazon will hire a
small group of people in its Amazon Web Services
(AWS) division to develop expertise and work with outside researchers to
monitor for future threats, one of the sources familiar with the matter said.
It could turn Amazon, the leading cloud service provider worldwide
with 40% market share according to research firm Gartner, into one of the
world's most powerful arbiters of content allowed on the internet, experts say.
Amazon made headlines in the Washington Post last week for
shutting down a website hosted on AWS that featured propaganda from Islamic
State that celebrated the suicide bombing that killed an estimated 170 Afghans
and 13 U.S. troops in Kabul last Thursday. They did so after the news
organization contacted Amazon, according to 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 permitting content promoting violence.
"AWS Trust & Safety works to protect AWS customers,
partners, and internet users from bad actors attempting to use our services for
abusive or illegal purposes," an AWS spokesperson said in a statement.
"When AWS Trust & Safety is made aware of abusive or illegal behavior,
they act quickly to investigate and engage with customers to take appropriate
actions. As AWS continues to expand, this team (like most teams in AWS) will
continue to grow."
Activists and human rights groups are increasingly holding not
just websites and apps accountable for harmful content, but also the underlying
tech infrastructure that enables those sites to operate, while political
conservatives decry the curtailing of free speech.
AWS already prohibits its services from being used in a variety of
ways, such as illegal or fraudulent activity, to incite or threaten violence or
promote child sexual exploitation and abuse, according to its acceptable use
policy.
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