'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter • Hacker News Board

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#291

Post by marcod » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 8:43 PM UTC

cwkoss wrote: post #95

Is there a law that prohibits a company from pretending to be employees to broadcast fake anti-union sentiment? Certainly seems like there should be. I would love to see Amazon slapped with a billion dollar fine for these shenanigans.

I'd like to point out that there are plenty of workers who don't believe Unions would be good for them... or they were "convinced" in some form.

While it's obvious that the accounts were created by corporate you don't know if the tweets are those of real workers or not.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#292

Post by sequoia » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 8:49 PM UTC

Is there any indication/proof that these accounts were in fact created or run by Amazon? This certainly seems a lot like someone is trolling: https://twitter.com/15Deloreans/status/1376678761630998533

1. Create fake accounts supporting amazon 2. tip your hand that they're fake 3. BBC reports on amazon creating fake accounts

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#293

Post by asdff » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 8:50 PM UTC

Matticus_Rex wrote: post #189

asdff wrote: post #13

This reminds me of the "fake" uber drivers who were texting me last election to vote yes on their hand tailored, virtually immutable proposition 22. Unfortunately this sort of easy stuff works on so many people. Prop 22 passed with 58% of the vote and they won. The cynic in me says Amazon knows they won't lose.

You mean the real Uber drivers who correctly understood that Prop 22 would allow them to voluntarily work in the way they want to work, despite the fact that well-meaning busybodies didn't like it?

No, they literally hired actors for their headshots. (1,2). Drivers also sued Uber for the barage of texts sent to them trying to sway their support on the issue (3).

1. https://i.imgur.com/JlZIpAI.jpg

2. https://www.backstage.com/u/alisha-elaine-anderson/

3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/22/uber-pr...

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#294

Post by ezekg » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 8:51 PM UTC

Look up the "Fifty Cent Army." You'd be naive to believe other corporations and governments do not play the game.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#295

Post by autokad » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 8:51 PM UTC

skohan wrote: post #3

I feel like authenticity of online communication is an unsolved problem. The web was supposed to be a democratizing platform: all you need to communicate with the world is an ISP and a keyboard. But if there's no way to control for authenticity, online sentiment will just be an arms race for who can pay for the best astroturfing.

well here's a start:

#1 - stop using the internet to gauge what popular

#2 - stop using what is popular to dictate law and how everyone has to act.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#296

Post by qPM9l3XJrF » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 8:53 PM UTC

skohan wrote: post #3

I feel like authenticity of online communication is an unsolved problem. The web was supposed to be a democratizing platform: all you need to communicate with the world is an ISP and a keyboard. But if there's no way to control for authenticity, online sentiment will just be an arms race for who can pay for the best astroturfing.

Even assuming you can get rid of paid shills, you're still gonna end up with most messages being written by people who are extremely online.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#297

Post by ezekg » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 8:56 PM UTC

barbacoa wrote: post #196

I am looking forward to the day that twitter is nothing more than Russian bots arguing with CIA bots arguing with Chinese bots arguing with corporate shill bots. And the only people being fooled are advertisers and twitter investors.

Welcome to that day! except it's not bots as you imagined -- it's programmed people.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#298

Post by Tiktaalik » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 8:57 PM UTC

hooande wrote: post #58

cecida wrote: post #43

Imagine being worth 185 billion dollars and still obsessing about your workers advocating for better pay and conditions? What a miserable existence that must be. Bezos has always struck me as a man who cares about nothing else only his own personal wealth and success. There is no joy in his life.

how would you respond if people said you were treating your employees unfairly? financial worth has nothing to do with it. if he feels that charge is untrue, he should push back against it. I would not be nearly as measured in my response. no sir, I am not the one

It would not be a good trait if one would reflexively push back at such accusations instead of reflecting inwardly and taking in the criticism.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#299

Post by Tiktaalik » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 8:58 PM UTC

ActorNightly wrote: post #164

cecida wrote: post #43

Imagine being worth 185 billion dollars and still obsessing about your workers advocating for better pay and conditions? What a miserable existence that must be. Bezos has always struck me as a man who cares about nothing else only his own personal wealth and success. There is no joy in his life.

Imagine building a company from the ground up that is succesfull solely because it produces a lot of value to people, and yet random people on the internet still think all you care about is hoarding money and think they can make better decisions than you. Here is the summary of the issue. Firstly, pre-pandemic, unemployment was at an alltime low (and its trending that way to as places are reopening), very close to fr…

> Unionization is messing with the free market, which never leads to good outcomes historically

I think the 8 hour week, and ending child labour are good outcomes.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#300

Post by ActorNightly » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 9:01 PM UTC

scubbo wrote: post #175

ActorNightly wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine building a company from the ground up that is succesfull solely because it produces a lot of value to people, and yet random people on the internet still think all you care about is hoarding money and think they can make better decisions than you. Here is the summary of the issue. Firstly, pre-pandemic, unemployment was at an alltime low (and its trending that way to as places are reopening), very close to fr…

> Unionization is messing with the free market, which never leads to good outcomes historically There are definitely some true, fair, and pertinent points in your comment (though, to be clear, they're not strong enough to actually make a compelling point, and I still disagree with your conclusion and position), but this is just nonsense. Every single social welfare program is "messing with the free market", and while…

>Every single social welfare program is "messing with the free market"

I mean, saying that a human life is worth something so you can't just treat people as expendable labor is "messing with the free market" technically, but thats a very low boundary. Social welfare addresses the lower tiers of income, specifically to aid people in basic needs of housing, food, healthcare and education. Those people aren't putting any significant money into the economy.

Unionization on the other hand is selective inflation of labor value in certain areas. Thats definitely messing with the free market. Didn't work for France very well, not going to work for US.