Amazon's Twitter Army Was Handpicked For 'Great Sense of Humor'

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Intercept: Amazon's small Twitter army of 'ambassadors' was quietly conceived in 2018 under the codename 'Veritas,' which sought to train and dispatch select employees to the social media trenches to defend Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, according to an internal description of the program obtained exclusively by The Intercept. Amazon ambassadors drew attention this week as they responded to a wave of online criticism for the company's treatment of workers amid a union drive at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.

Anticipating criticisms of worker conditions at their fulfillment centers in particular, Amazon designed Veritas to train fulfillment center workers chosen for their 'great sense of humor' to confront critics -- including policymakers -- on Twitter in a 'blunt' manner. The document, produced as part of the pilot program in 2018 and marked 'Amazon.com Confidential,' also includes examples of how its ambassadors can snarkily respond to criticisms of the company and its CEO. Several examples involve Sen. Bernie Sanders, a longtime critic of the $1 trillion firm who has been targeted by it in recent days. It also provides examples of how to defend Bezos.

'To address speculation and false assertions in social media and online forums about the quality of the FC [Fulfillment Center] associate experience, we are creating a new social team staffed with active, tenured FC employees, who will be empowered to respond in a polite -- but blunt -- way to every untruth,' the project description reads. 'FC Ambassadors ('FCA') will respond to all posts and comments from customers, influencers (including policymakers), and media questioning the FC associate experience.' Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, said via email: 'FC Ambassadors are employees who work in our fulfillment centers and choose to share their personal experience -- the FC ambassador program helps show what it's actually like inside our fulfillment centers, along with the public tours we provide.' According to the BBC, accounts claiming to be Amazon workers are using the @AmazonFC handle followed by a first name to praise their working conditions on Twitter. Twitter has now suspended many of the accounts, and Amazon has confirmed at least one is fake.

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