After weeks of controversy Amazon has confirmed that it is not going to remove From Jews to Blacks: Wake Up Black Americadocumentary accused of antisemitism. This was stated by CEO Andy Jassi during his participation in the DealBook conference organized by New York Times. And he took the opportunity to highlight the difficulties of moderating content for sales on his platform.
The executive’s statements came after controversy over Kyrie Irving, one of the stars of the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA. The basketball player came under fire in late October after sharing an Amazon link to the aforementioned feature film, which was released in 2018. The production was heavily criticized for antisemitic statements such as accusations that the American press is under Jewish control, Holocaust denial, and alleged Jewish oppression of communities of color.
The situation led the New York franchise to suspend the athlete for eight games after initially refusing to apologize. But it also made various organizations and celebrities asked Amazon to remove both the documentary and the book of the same namewhich was published in 2014. However, the Seattle firm refused, and now its CEO has explained why.
Advised on the case From Jews to Blacks: Wake Up Black America, Andy Jassi noted that content moderation is one of the most difficult issues to deal with at Amazon. “Some cases are easier. If you have a job that actively promotes or incites violence or teaches people to do things like pedophilia, it’s easy. [controlarlos]. We don’t allow those. When you have content that isn’t originally designed to incite hatred or characterize people negatively, it’s much more difficult. And it can be even more difficult if we take them from the store.”
Amazon in the midst of debate over anti-Semitic documentary
When From Jews to Blacks: Wake Up Black America put Amazon in a difficult position. As soon as the Kyrie Irving scandal broke, the company assured that considered placing a content warning in both the documentary and the book. However, none of this happened.
In addition, the situation put Andy Yassy in an awkward position due to the fact that he is Jewish. However, the manager tried draw a dividing line between your faith and the duties of your office. “I am concerned about anti-Semitism and I find various parts of this work [el documental] unwanted. But I think you have to be principled if you want to manage something as big as us,” he said. He added: “As content distributors for hundreds of millions of clients with a wide variety of viewpoints, we must allow access to these viewpoints, even if they are objectionable and differ from our specific views.”
As explained New York Times, From Jews to Blacks: Wake Up Black America it came to Amazon via Prime Video Direct. This tool was launched in 2016 to enable independent filmmakers and content creators to offer their products to a wider audience. Since its premiere in 2018, the documentary has been accused of anti-Semitism. went almost unnoticedbut gained wide circulation after Irving shared it with his millions of social media followers.
As of now, the film is still available to rent or buy on Amazon. And the company’s statement that it’s not going to remove it or flag it as potentially offensive. leaves the door open to continue the dispute in force.
