As calls for dramatic reforms of U.S. police departments have swept the country in recent months, several of Silicon Valley’s largest companies have tried to salvage their image by asserting that they will no longer sell their facial recognition software to police departments. Among these companies is Amazon, which decided to place a one-year pause on the sale of its software “Rekognition” to U.S. police departments in early June.
At the time the moratorium was announced, The New York Times noted that “the announcement was a striking change for Amazon…” due to the fact that, “more than other big technology companies, Amazon has resisted calls to slow its deployment.” Amazon’s resistance to the widespread adoption of its facial recognition software gained notoriety after a study found that Rekognition falsely tied 28 members of Congress, most of whom were politicians of color, to mugshots, causing critics to accuse Amazon’s product of both racial bias and inaccuracy.
However, what The Times and other outlets failed to pick up on, then and now, is the fact that Amazon’s Rekognition is still being supplied to U.S. police, despite its official moratorium. Indeed, U.S. law enforcement agencies are still being offered Amazon’s facial recognition software by a NGO partnered with Amazon that was created by actor Ashton Kutcher, who frequently co-invests with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
That NGO, called “Thorn,” continues to supply the controversial software to law enforcement agencies around the country under the guise of helping police “combat child trafficking.” Thorn’s role in supplying such software to law enforcement despite moratoriums is also notable because its founder Ashton Kutcher has publicly and “tearfully” supported Black Lives Matter amid the recent protests that provoked Amazon’s moratorium on sales of Rekognition to police in the first place. In addition, Kutcher is also a major investor, alongside Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, in a company that supplies AI-powered software to law enforcement agencies, further undermining Kutcher’s professed support for ending racial inequities in policing.
Yet, further investigation into Thorn casts even greater doubt on its professed altruistic objectives, given the organization’s ties to CIA cut-outs, Wall Street banks and another “anti-child trafficking” organization that was launched by Hillary Clinton and Cherie Blair, the wife of former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. (more...)
Ashton Kutcher’s NGO Supplies Police with ‘Free’ CIA-linked Surveillance Tool to ‘Protect Kids’
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