Militia members take advantage of at least one revenue stream through Amazon’s charity collaboration program, Amazon Smile. As of Tuesday evening, Amazon shoppers can choose to donate 0.5% of their purchase costs to the Indiana chapter of the anti-government armed group Oath Keepers, one of which just charged with conspiracy related to the attack on the Capitol.
The Sleeping Giants, which marks the online promotion of far-right groups, today i saw the connection. Amazon Smile appears on the Indiana Oath Keepers site as an affiliate.
Multiple other charities that refer to Oath Keepers and other far-right groups also appear in the Amazon Smile program, but we were unable to confirm key details of these accounts prior to posting.
This morning, the Washington Post reported that a 66-year-old man was supposed to be Member of Oath Keeper has become the first defendant in a conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. FBI documents, including personal communications, suggest he had atHe decided to organize between 30 and 40 followers to coordinate a siege. One of the group’s messages called for the “citizen arrest” of lawmakers.
The guardians of the oath, who count police officers among their ranks, they have been a mainstay in armed protests along the years with fellow travelers like Boogaloo Bois and all three percentages. They too self-promotion in places of climate disasters.
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It’s unclear how the Indiana Oath Keepers use the funds raised through Amazon Smile. This, however, is likely to be irrelevant. Amazon Smile Terms specifically prohibit groups that “participate in, support, encourage, or promote intolerance, hatred, terrorism,” and “violence”.
Amazon has not yet responded to any feedback requests. Indiana Oath Keepers and OathKeepers.org have also not responded to a request for comment.
Last month, the UK-based research center openedDemocracy Found that Amazon hosted more than 40 anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion groups that evangelized hatred. These include the Billy Graham Evangelical Association, which has reportedly spent more than $ 96 million since 2008. international campaigns blocking access to abortion and suppressing LGBTQ rights; the American Center for Law and Justice linked to Trump, which provided legal arguments for the ban on abortion in Poland; and the Indiana chapter of the American Family Association, designated by a Southern Poverty Law Center hate group this has blamed Nazism for homosexuality. In this writing, none of the more than 40 groups investigated and notified on Amazon have been removed.
An Amazon spokesman said in an email last month that charities that fail to meet their eligibility requirements, which include the promotion of illegal activities, will no longer be able to participate in the Smile program. He added that Amazon relies on the U.S. Foreign Assets Control Office and the SPLC “to provide the data for these determinations.” The SPLC has designated the guardians of the oath as an extremist group that deserves one long profile.
Of course, Amazon has stayed by the side its policy prohibiting violent content by revoking Parler’s hosting services. After Parler filed a motion for Amazon Web Services to reinstall the site, Amazon submitted a document list of horrors sample publications, including death threats associated with racial insults. Amazon said it had already addressed Parler for its failure to moderate unbridled hate speech in November 2020.
The Indiana Oath Keepers site also directs visitors to choose them as beneficiaries of the Kroger Community Rewards Program, where it can no longer be found. The supermarket chain said in an email that it was “dismayed” to learn that Oath Keepers had benefited from the program and withdrew them quickly.