As Amazon workers in Alabama began their vote-count to determine whether they would set up a union – the first-ever Amazon union in the US – a fake Twitter bot posing as an anti-union amazon worker has been exposed.
An account with the handle @AmazonFCDarla joined Twitter a few days ago, and almost immediately started tweeting anti-union sentiments.
https://twitter.com/shantilly_t/status/1376648426977304579?s=20
For example, one of the tweets reads “what bothers me most about unions is there’s no ability to opt out of dues! As a single mother with two boys I’m barely scraping by as it is, and now unions want to come to Amazon and make them pay a piece of my salary.”
“No thanks!”
Author Steven Greenhouse pointed out that the information shared by the account was actually incorrect.
Aside from smart tech folks saying this is a fake, AI-generated profile, what Darla say is false, as Amazon well knows. Because Alabama is an anti-union-fee state (a so-called right-to-work state), Amazon workers there have the right to opt out of paying any union dues or fees. https://t.co/E9hrQrC0OK
— Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) March 29, 2021
Amazon said that they reported the Darla account to Twitter, and that it was fake.
The ‘Darla’ account has now been suspended.
Amazon just told me that the Darla account in particular is fake and they have reported it to Twitter.
FWIW, "her" tweets are posted via the Twitter Web App, and Amazon's other FC tweets are typically posted via Sprinklr pic.twitter.com/KOPzD0DBlz
— Karen Weise (@KYWeise) March 29, 2021
However, Twitter users have pointed out other Twitter profiles claiming to be Amazon workers that look like bots. A number of them joined the app in March 2021 and have tweeted negatively about the union situation.
Hey check out these totally real Amazon employees who joined twitter this month and totally love their job! pic.twitter.com/7BClsz9ZAl
— Nathan Lamb (@nathanl75) March 29, 2021
One of the apparent Amazon employees – whose Twitter name is Burt at OK4 – has a profile image taken from a member of the comedy group ‘Dude Perfect’.
Amazon didn’t even really try with this one lol pic.twitter.com/Q9dyTzKqns
— Tim Sullivan 🐋 (@timjsully) March 29, 2021
The exact source of these accounts is as yet unconfirmed.
In 2018, Amazon acknowledged that a group of employees was charged with tweeting positively about their working environment.
Last week, Amazon was the subject of controversy after the official Amazon News Twitter tweeted blithely “you don’t believe all that stuff about peeing in bottles do you?” after criticism from a Wisconsin politician.
Amazon workers – particularly delivery drivers – have made repeated claims that they were forced to urinate in plastic bottles to make quotas.
Featured Image: iStock/jetcityimage
