Amazon's leaked employee chat app reportedly plans to ban several words like "union" and "restroom," among others.
A worker prepares packages for delivery at an Amazon warehouse on September 4, 2014 in Brieselang, Germany. Germany is online retailer Amazon's second largest market after the USA. Amazon is currently in a standoff with several book publishers over sales conditions and prices for e-books, and hundreds of authors in the US and Europe have written letters in support of the publishers.
Amazon Employee Chat App Banned Words
As per a news story by The Verge, Amazon is reportedly planning to create an internal messaging app for its workforce.
However, the Amazon employee app reportedly planned to flag several words on its platform, preventing its future users from sending messages which contained any included keywords.
According to the internal documents seen by The Intercept, the tech giant is planning to include a feature in its internal messaging app which will automatically block the words that Amazon flags.
Some of the banned words in the internal documents reportedly included terms like "slave labor," "union," and "living wage," to name a few.
On top of that, it notably also planned to block the word "restroom" in its unreleased messaging app for employees.
Amazon's Internal Chat App
Meanwhile, the unnamed sources of The Intercept went on to add that the head of worldwide consumer business of Amazon, Dave Clark, suggested the worker chat app.
The logo of US online retail giant Amazon is seen at the distribution center in Staten Island as workers strike in demand that the facility be shut down and cleaned after one staffer tested positive for the coronavirus on March 30, 2020 in New York. - Amazon employees at a New York City warehouse walk off the job March 30, 2020, as a growing number of delivery and warehouse workers demand better pay and protections in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The initial plan for the app is to replicate an experience similar to the widely-popular dating app, Bumble, giving its users an experience far from a massive social media platform.
Aside from the general experience of the app, the Amazon exec also reportedly talked about the grim side of social media platforms during its meeting.
As such, the top brass of the tech behemoth is said to have decided to closely monitor the posts of its employees if ever the app will see the light of day.
What's more, the tech execs also decided to create a list of words that would be blocked from the internal platform, which includes various abusive terms, such as profanities.
However, the "bad" words list did not only include generally inappropriate terms, it also reportedly added "injustice," "ethics," "diversity," and "pay raise," among others.
Not to mention that it also allegedly flagged phrases like "this is concerning."
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Amazon: Chat App Not Yet Approved
The spokesperson of Amazon, Barbara Agrait, said in a statement to The Verge that the leaked employee chat app "has not been approved yet and may change significantly."
The Amazon spokesperson also stated that the leaked project could also "never launch at all."
Agrait also clarified that "the only kinds of words that may be screened are ones that are offensive or harassing, which is intended to protect our team."
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Written by Teejay Boris
