Amazon Reportedly Has Twitter Army Secret Group That Defends Jeff Bezos and Company, Reveals New Report

On Tuesday, March 30, Amazon was the subject of a new round of scrutiny regarding the warehouse workers' army. They enlisted to defend the company and CEO Jeff Bezos from criticism of its harsh working conditions. Amazon's small Twitter army of "ambassadors" was developed quietly in 2018 under the codename "Veritas."

Amazon anti-union controversy: What is Veritas?

BusinessInsider reported that leaked documents detailing the program, launched in 2018, "Veritas," detailed how Amazon recruited and trained employees to uphold "the integrity of the workplace" and ensure that "people who know what it's like to work in the factory happy with their jobs."

The internal documents obtained by TheIntercept state that Amazon expected their ambassadors to have "a strong performance background and clean HR history, be authentic, show a sense of humor, and be enthusiastic about speaking their mind and responding to critics in a polite, straightforward manner."

Amazon designed Veritas to train fulfillment center workers selected for their "great sense of humor" to combat critics, including policymakers, on Twitter in an "offbeat" manner.

These Twitter army reportedly has one goal: protect Amazon from social media bashing, and make Jeff Bezos happy as possible.

The document contains examples of how ambassadors could snarkily respond to criticism of the company and its CEO and was produced as part of the pilot program in 2018.

Several examples involve Senator Bernie Sanders, a longtime critic of Amazon, who has recently become a target by Amazon. The book also suggests ways to defend Bezos.

Amazon's Twitter statements

According to TheIntercept, Sens. Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., took to Twitter last week to express their concerns about its treatment of its workers and its corporate practices.

Amazon's Public Relations account replied tauntingly, asking Pocan, "You don't really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?"

Many Amazon delivery drivers have had to relieve themselves in bags and bottles to meet demanding quotas, and the company knew it.

Sanders, who has confronted the company over its labor practices and recently visited Alabama workers, is repeatedly mentioned in the 2018 document. In one instance, the document references a video Sanders tweeted: "Bernie Sanders interviewing Seth King on Prime Day. Seth describes feeling so depressed with his job at Amazon to take his own life."

Amazon is an openly and aggressively anti-union company and has engaged in a range of union-busting tactics, ranging from pressuring union members at mandatory midnight "education" meetings to rearranging traffic light timings near its facilities.

The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, under which Amazon employees seek to organize, claims the decision is an effort to prevent its members from communicating with employees stopped at red lights.

The company has also reactivated its Twitter ambassadors in response to a recent wave of criticism about the "pee bottles" and other workers' complaints about working conditions.

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Written by Lionell Moore