Hundreds of musicians vow to boycott Amazon over ties with ICE
Hundreds of musicians vow to boycott Amazon over ties with ICE

“We will not allow Amazon to exploit our creativity to promote its brand while it enables attacks on immigrants, communities of color, workers, and local economies.”

Updated

1:16 pm PDT, Friday, October 25, 2019

Guests explore the Amazon Spheres during an opening day unveiling event, Monday morning, Jan. 29, 2018. The Spheres are an innovative workplace filled with more than 40,000 plants from around the world, that will be available to Amazon employees beginning this week. less
Guests explore the Amazon Spheres during an opening day unveiling event, Monday morning, Jan. 29, 2018. The Spheres are an innovative workplace filled with more than 40,000 plants from around the world, that … more

Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM

photo

Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM

Guests explore the Amazon Spheres during an opening day unveiling event, Monday morning, Jan. 29, 2018. The Spheres are an innovative workplace filled with more than 40,000 plants from around the world, that will be available to Amazon employees beginning this week. less
Guests explore the Amazon Spheres during an opening day unveiling event, Monday morning, Jan. 29, 2018. The Spheres are an innovative workplace filled with more than 40,000 plants from around the world, that … more

Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM

Hundreds of musicians vow to boycott Amazon over ties with ICE

Hundreds of musicians have pledged not to work with Amazon going forward, accusing the tech giant of providing the “technical backbone for ICE’s human rights abuses” and calling on the company to cut its ties with the immigration agency.

In an open letter titled “No Music for ICE,” published this week by nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future, more than 800 artists went after the Seattle-based tech company for its ties to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“It has recently come to light that Amazon Web Services, an Amazon subsidiary with known ties to ICE and law enforcement, is hosting a festival marketed as an experience ‘where music, technology and art converge,'” the letter said. “We the undersigned artists are outraged that Amazon continues to provide the technical backbone for ICE’s human rights abuses.”

It references a festival Amazon Web Services is holding in Las Vegas in December.

RELATED: Amazon met with ICE officials over facial recognition system that could identify immigrants

The artists said in the letter they wouldn’t participate in “Amazon-sponsored events, or engage in exclusive partnerships with Amazon in the future” unless the company makes a series of changes, including ending contracts with any agencies that “commit human rights abuses.” It also calls for Amazon to stop giving Cloud services and tools to organizations that “power the US government’s deportation machine” and to no longer do projects that “encourage racial profiling and discrimination.”

“We will not allow Amazon to exploit our creativity to promote its brand while it enables attacks on immigrants, communities of color, workers and local economies,” the letter said. “We call on all artists who believe in basic rights and human dignity to join us.”

Artists that signed the letter include names such as Girlpool, Chastity Belt, Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, Ted Leo and Katie Alice Greer, Priests / Sister Polygon Records.

RELATED: Immigration families wait in dread, but no sign of large-scale enforcement raids

Evan Greer, deputy director for Fight for the Future and an artist, said in a statement a lot of companies take part in unethical practices — but Amazon “seems to enjoy it.”

“They’re trying to bonegraft themselves to government agencies and authoritarian structures to make their monopoly status impossible to challenge. As big tech and surveillance capitalism creep further and further into the music industry, it’s no surprise that artists are fighting back,” Greer said.

Amazon has come under fire in the past for its ties to ICE.

Earlier this year, Amazon employees called on the tech giant to end its work with Palantir, a data company that contracts with ICE. The employees at the time called for the company to come out against the immigration raids and warned the company should do better. There have also been protests in the past demanding Amazon cut all ties to ICE.

RELATED: Dozens of Bezos faces protest Amazon facial recognition

Several reports earlier this year highlighted the conditions in migrant detention centers at the border, with children being crammed into small cold spaces, not being given proper food, clothing or hygiene products like toothpaste or soap. The Trump administration also faced massive pushback for its policy of family separation at the border. The American Civil Liberties Union said this week the number of children separated was even higher than previously known.

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