Twitter Is Banning Amazon Sock Puppet 'Ambassador' Accounts

Amazon could once again be trying to combat unflattering social media conversations about them by deploying an army of sock puppet Twitter accounts to talk about how much they love working at Amazon and not being in a union. That, or it's an elaborate meme.

Amazon creating bots to oppose unionization. Jfc 🤦🏻‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/MClxNmkLvw

— Josh 🏴🚩 (@RabidSocialist) March 29, 2021

As political pressure mounts on Amazon to provide better working conditions for employees and allow them to unionize, the mega e-tailer has been notably callous in its efforts to quell online dissent. After Democratic congressman Mark Pocan brought up a 2017 scandal about Amazon workers being forced to pee in water bottles because they weren't allowed bathroom breaks, the @AmazonNews Twitter account responded, "you don't really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?" (At the time, Vice published photos of the pee-filled bottles).

The barrage of negative social interactions has led to the re-emergence of comically inept "ambassador" Twitter bots whose sole purpose is to talk about about how great Amazon is. The company tried this once before in 2018 and was widely mocked for it, as the accounts couldn't keep their names or genders straight in addition to the transparent PR message they were pushing.

This time around, it's difficult to tell if the Amazon "ambassador" accounts are real or parodies. They've sprung up all over Twitter, with some utilizing face-generation websites such as This Person Does Not Exist to fabricate happy employees. Vice examined the avatar of one of the accounts, @AmazonFCLulu, and determined that distortions around the picture's hair and eyes suggest that the picture was AI-generated.

Furthermore, one account's avatar was an easily-searchable image of a member of the popular YouTube channel DudePerfect.

Amazon didn’t even really try with this one lol pic.twitter.com/Q9dyTzKqns

— Tim Sullivan 🐋 (@timjsully) March 29, 2021

Twitter stepped in and began banning the @AmazonFC accounts, though apparently, they don't know if the people they're banning are trolls or legitimate employees of Amazon. Twitter told Vice, "A minority of these accounts might belong to Amazon, and could return once they have corrected whatever violation prompted Twitter to ban them. A majority of these accounts don't belong to Amazon, and could return if they clearly declare themselves as parody accounts."

It's just as plausible that Amazon is trying their "ambassador" strategy again as it is that memers are bringing the joke back to generate even more negative press for Amazon. Whatever the case may be, the existence of the new accounts underlines just how shady Amazon has been on social media in the past.