Two federal lawmakers have requested that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy address concerns about the company’s role in pushing shoppers toward books and products that promote misinformation about the coronavirus.
Nearly 18 months into the pandemic, merchandise touting unproven COVID-19 remedies and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories continues to land near the top of Amazon.com’s search results for terms related to the disease, recent media reports have highlighted.
Amazon “cannot possibly justify the sale of false information that directly endangers your consumers,” wrote Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in a Wednesday letter to Jassy, citing University of Washington research that found over 10% of vaccine-related search results on Amazon.com contained misinformation about vaccine efficacy and safety. Amazon’s search algorithms prioritize conspiracy theories, the researchers concluded: Books and merchandise promoting vaccine misinformation are among the first results shoppers see when they search for terms like “vaccine.”
And until recently, the first result for the search “COVID cure” on Amazon.com was a book about the drug ivermectin, commonly sold in concentrated form as a horse dewormer. The drug’s misuse to treat COVID-19 has sparked warnings from federal regulators amid a slew of calls to poison control centers from people who have overdosed on the potent formula.
Schiff echoed a call earlier this week from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who asked Jassy to “perform an immediate review of Amazon’s algorithms” to determine to what extent they are pushing users toward misinformation. Schiff also sent a letter Wednesday to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg questioning that company’s efforts to fight coronavirus misinformation on its social network.
Both lawmakers have previously urged Amazon to address the spread of coronavirus-related misinformation on its platform. The company has taken some actions to point shoppers toward authoritative sources of information about the coronavirus — a banner linking to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now appears over all coronavirus-related searches on the site, for instance.
The persistence of misleading information in Amazon search results, though, “suggests that Amazon is either unwilling or unable to modify its business practices to prevent the spread of falsehoods or the sale of inappropriate products,” Warren wrote.
Amazon’s continued “peddling of misinformation” is an “unethical, unacceptable and potentially unlawful course of action from one of the nation’s largest retailers,” she added.
Amazon did not respond to questions about whether it intended to review its search algorithms as the lawmakers requested.
“As a company, we continue to encourage our employees to get vaccinated, and we believe it is an important step for communities to stay healthy and recover from the pandemic,” spokesperson Alex Haurek said in an email. “As a retailer, we respect that our customers want access to a wide variety of viewpoints on the matter, which is why we continue to list the books in question.”
This article has been updated with a statement from Amazon.
___
(c)2021 The Seattle Times
Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
If that wish is honored, neither Schiff nor Warren will ever be able to speak again.
They shouldn’t be. BUT YOU CAN BET they will be PROMOTED via amazonistan…
Anyone who still uses az,fb tw & every other left wing company is just feeding the coffers of the left. Stop using them please, they do not own everything YET!!!!!
I have not used commizon, for a good 5years now.
Adam Schiff, Elizabeth Warren you spread “misinformation”. The misinformation you spread, Adam and Elizabeth is called communist propaganda.
As one who should know all about lies misinformation and lies, Adam Schiff is very well qualified to weigh in on the subject. For four years and then some he has treated us with a barrage of misinformation that makes one’shead spin. In his case, however, he never had anything substantial to present or back up his claims. With COVID the situation is somewhat different. The so-called misinformation is stronly backed up by real research and statistics. Politicians are picking and chosing what facts to present and which to dismiss rather than actually discuss, debate, and put them to scientific scutiny.
All of Adam Schiff’s EVIDENCE on just about everything must be in a warehouse , of which he cannot remember the address of . He keeps flapping his lips about evidence and never COMES Forward with it. I think Pelosi maybe using that SAME warehouse.
The Democrats OWN the entire industrial park the warehouseS are in.
They probably mean COVID information that goes contrary to the gubment’s official propaganda, even if it’s based on REAL science (versus gubment “science”, like Fauci). Can we have Amazon, FB, Google, MSNVC, CNN, Fox News – hell the whole kit and caboodle, every media and social media outlet – censor Schiff and Warring? Is my spelling wrong? Both are worthless examples of DNA and both are a waste of carbon and oxygen.
Honest people do not need or desire a censorship of lies but liars insist that no one be allowed to speak the truth and openly expose the lying lies of the liars.