Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/24/twitter-invaded-by-astroturf-a.html
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Foot, meet bullet.
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Okay, that one claims to like sports and anime. I call bullshit - unless it’s meant to imply sports anime, which is definitely not sports.
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All with “Amazon smiles” as their backgrounds
All this time I thought it was a penis.
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So is Amazon paying some of its warehouse workers to astroturf, or have they hired professional astroturfers? Are we talking quislings or mercenaries here?
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Mercs. Probably bots. Regular employees wouldn’t show such uniformity.
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It’s a modern day Rorschach test.
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It’s interesting that they name their fulfillment centers after the airport they use. Central Ohio (CMH) and Jacksonville (JAX) seem to be well represented. If these are real people, both of those facilities are fairly new.
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Aren’t most of Amazon’s warehouses literally run by bots?
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Disclaimer: I work for Amazon and have worked in both an Amazon warehouse and a non-Amazon warehouse.
There is an Ambassador role within fullfillment centers (FCs), they provide training, tours, etc and act as go-tos, and they tend to be longer tenure employees. Having separate work accounts that link to tours seems logical, but I agree the consistency makes them feel overly contrived or even botlike.
Take a tour! You’ll find that a lot of the negative claims are either 1. False, 2. Common for shift work (like getting regular breaks but having off-task time for bathroom limited), or 3. True but exaggerated.
Most of the most egregious claims I I’ve seen are actually about the seasonal so staffing temp agencies, not Amazon itself.
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Seems like some of them are going out of their way to avoid posting a picture of themselves. When they do it’s Wilson from "Home Improvement.
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Hello, I enjoy football, hockey and My Hero Academia. Please don’t assume things about anime fans.
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I really want to believe these are being written by Mechanical Turkers.
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It’s not astroturfing!!
Astroturfing is a fake grass roots movement, ie paying someone to promote something without disclosing that you’re paying them to do it.
But these people literally have “Amazon FC Ambassador” in their name and the Amazon logo as their background. It’s clear that they’re Amazon employees who have an additional PR-style role with Amazon.
This is a perfect example of the difference. If fid hadn’t included the disclaimer and been directed to make that post by a manager he would have been astroturfing.
But he disclosed his employment and made the post voluntarily, therefore definitely not astroturfing!
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Amazon is still their employer, however temporarily, and remain responsible for the conditions of their labor.
I too love my employer, who should totally give me a raise and not fire me for complaining which I would never do because have I mentioned how much I love my employer? (nervously tugs collar)
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creepy af but nothing that any fortune 500 company wouldn’t attempt?
presents a great opportunity to see how few of them are still working there after a year though, my bet would be two tops
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I have talked face-to-face with several different real people who worked in Amazon Fulfillment centers. Unanimously they said the conditions were miserable and that most of their co-workers were just there because they had no other job options.
I weigh that more heavily than a mysterious BBS account with only two posts, both defending Amazon.
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I pretty much get what most of these people do:
Picker
Stowing
Rebin
Pack Singles
Inbound Dock
Induct and Pack
But what the hell does Sean do all day?:
Water Spider
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I can’t be the only person that was briefly wondering about Amazon sponsoring all those soccer teams…
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Hello! I work in an Amazon FC…etc…etc…Working conditions are very good- clean/well lit
So lame when corporations try to use current slang!
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