Amazon.com Inc. laid out its official positions on a number of hot-button issues Thursday, and made it clear that it will continue to work with energy companies and the U.S. government.
“We created this page to provide customers, investors, policymakers, employees, and others our views on certain issues,” Amazon wrote in an introduction. “While our positions are carefully considered and deeply held, there is much room for healthy debate and differing opinions. We hope being clear about our positions is helpful.”
But critics may have been disappointed by two stances: Amazon’s commitment to continue providing cloud services to energy companies and providing federal, state and local governments with “the best technology,” apparently including facial-recognition technology. In its policy statement, Amazon said that won’t happen. “We will continue to provide cloud services to companies in the energy industry to make their legacy businesses less carbon intensive and help them accelerate development of renewable energy businesses,” it read. “We support sustainability programs for our own business, and work with partners to reduce their demand for carbon fuel sources.”