Technology

Twitter Backs Off Partnership With SPLC Amid Bombshell Reports. Amazon Stays Silent

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Twitter appears to be one of the only big tech companies to back out of an alliance with the Southern Poverty Law Center after the group’s long-time president was fired for unspecified conduct reasons, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

“The SPLC is not a member of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council or a partner the company has worked with recently,” a source within the company told TheDCNF. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity and did not disclose when Twitter distanced itself from the SPLC, which was dealt a significant blow in March following reports suggesting the group scams people out of money.

Twitter listed the SPLC as a “safety partner” working to combat “hateful conduct and harassment,” according to a June 2018 DCNF report. The company also included the Trust and Safety Council, which “provides input on our safety products, policies, and programs,” Twitter’s policy page noted at the time. Twitter’s page no longer includes SPLC as a member helping to govern certain types of conduct.

Amazon, Google and Facebook have not responded to TheDCNF’s requests for comment regarding their ongoing affiliation with the SPLC. Facebook did, however, tell The Daily Signal that the company doesn’t “rely on any one outside group in the development of our policies.”

All four companies worked with or consulted the SPLC as early as June 2018 to help police their platforms for “hate speech” or “hate groups.”

Amazon granted the SPLC broad policing power over the Amazon Smile charitable program. “We remove organizations that the SPLC deems as ineligible,” an Amazon spokeswoman told TheDCNF in 2018. Amazon grants the SPLC that power “because we don’t want to be biased whatsoever,” she said at the time.

Former SPLC staffer Bob Moser, now a Rolling Stone reporter, accused the nonprofit group in a March 21 New Yorker article of “ripping off donors” while ignoring racial discrimination and sexual harassment. The SPLC fired co-founder Morris Dees on March 13 over “inappropriate conduct.”

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