Workers criticize Amazon's response to protests, its work with law enforcement

Some Amazon employees are accusing their company of hypocrisy after the tech giant tweeted a statement condemning the treatment of black people in the US.

Amazon released a statement Sunday to protest George Floyd's death last week in police custody. "Together we stand in solidarity with the Black community ... in the fight against systemic racism and injustice," Amazon's tweeted statement read in part.

On Tuesday, however, a group of Amazon workers under the Twitter account @WeWontBuildIt, which describes itself in its bio as "calling for accountability and transparency in the tech we build," questioned the company's actions in light of its statement.

"Which police contracts have you cut? How many remain?" the group tweeted.

Amazon has faced criticism for licensing its Rekognition facial-recognition software to law enforcement agencies. The criticism has come from civil liberties groups and experts in artificial intelligence who have asked the company to stop selling the software to police. They fear the the software could be abused and used to target people of color, immigrants, religious minorities and other groups.

The American Civil Liberties Union tweeted a similar response: "Cool tweet. Will you commit to stop selling face recognition surveillance technology that supercharges police abuse?"

Amazon and @WeWontBuildIt didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The company's statement came amid nationwide protests over the death of Floyd, who died in police custody on May 25 in Minneapolis after now-fired Police Officer Derek Chauvin was captured on video pressing his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes before Floyd died. Since his death, protests have erupted and number of companies have offered support and funding to end police brutality and racial injustice.