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Amazon workers across the world have gone on strike for Black Friday, according to the labor advocacy group UNI Global Union. The protests, dubbed Make Amazon Pay, are scheduled to last until December 2. Strikes are happening everywhere, from the US to Australia and Nepal. There are also demonstrations happening in more than 20 countries over labor abuses, environmental degradation and threats to democracy. The demonstrators are petitioning the company, which is worth around $2.2 trillion, for increased wages, better working conditions and the permission to form unions. Amazon doesnt particularly care for unions. #MakeAmazonPay sagen diese Woche Gewerkschaftsaktive aus weltweit mehr als 20 Ländern zum #BlackFriday der auf dem Rücken der Arbeiter:innen ausgetragen wird. #Solidarität gibt es dafür auch von den starken @_verdi Vertrauensleuten aus dem Hamburger Hafen der @HHLA_Group pic.twitter.com/O8MptYXrdh ver.di Amazon Niedersachsen-Bremen (@verdiAmazon_NDS) November 29, 2024 This includes thousands of workers in Germany, across several cities, and hundreds in New Delhi. Employees from Indias capital city are protesting after the company allegedly mistreated workers during a massive heat wave earlier this year, in which people reportedly began fainting due to heat stroke. However, Amazon sent a statement after that saying that it complies with Indian law and that theres nothing more important than the safety and well being of the workers." #MakeAmazonPay Day begins! Amazon workers in Jantar Mantar, Delhi rally to demand minimum pay, decent working conditions & recognition of Amazon workers union @AiwaInd pic.twitter.com/rBUKd7DV9Z UNI Global Union (@uniglobalunion) November 29, 2024 The Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and Citizen's Action will also hold protests in multiple cities across France and garment workers are demonstrating in Bangladesh. The strikes and associated protests could slow down holiday deliveries a bit, according to ABC News. This is, of course, the entire point of a strike. This is the fifth straight year of Make Amazon Pay actions, which always start on Black Friday. The aim of the movement is to hold Amazon accountable around the world by targeting the busiest holiday shopping weekend. To that end, Amazon represented nearly 20 percent of worldwide Black Friday transactions in 2023, with more than $170 billion in holiday sales. While billionaire Bezos tours the world on his $500m yacht, Amazon workers in 20+ countries are rising up this Black Friday to demand fair wages, union rights & climate action. Amazon must pay its fair share & respect workers. I stand with #MakeAmazonPay https://t.co/NmX1Sc1F66 Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 27, 2024 "Amazon's relentless pursuit of profit comes at a cost to workers, the environment and democracy," said Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union. We stand united in demanding that Amazon treat its workers fairly, respect fundamental rights and stop undermining the systems meant to protect us all. Amazon has a different take on things, writing in a statement that the organizers are being intentionally misleading and continuing to promote a false narrative. The company also crowed that it has created more than 1.5 million jobs around the world and that it provides a modern, safe and engaging workplace. Modern and safe? Amazon was responsible for more than half of all serious warehouse injuries in the US in 2022. Let me state that again. Amazon accounted for more than half of these incidents and every other company combined accounted for the remaining 47 percent. This was reported more than a year after the company promised to spend $300 million on improving workplace safety. However, Amazon recently announced a major investment, to the tune of $2.2 billion, to increase pay for fulfillment and transportation employees in the US. Thats good news, but is only around one quarter of what the company spent on major investments in the AI company Anthropic. Amazon has invested a total of $8 billion in Anthropic. https://t.co/k2vM7Ozbc2 Observer (@observer) November 22, 2024 Make Amazon Pay was originally launched in 2020 by the aforementioned UNI Global Union an Progressive International. The organizations say it has steadily grown each year, with this year's protests drawing support from over 30 unions, environmental organizations and civil society groups.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-workers-across-the-globe-are-on-strike-for-black-friday-174745422.html?src=rss
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Riot Games added some new clauses to its Terms of Service that could put some players in hot water for unbecoming behavior that occurs across the various places that touch their gaming experience. Players can face penalties, suspensions and even Riot-wide bans if they are caught violating these new rules. The new clauses first appeared on Riots Privacy Notice and TOS on Tuesday. Creators have until January 3, 2025 to adjust their content to adhere to these rules, according to Riot Games announcement. The new Off-Platform conduct rule gives Riot Games the right to issue game penalties when hateful content is brought to their attention. The new clause says Riot Games wont proactively search for social media for violations. Instead, players can report cases about an offending players conduct on a livestream in which one of its games serves as the background of the content produced. If Riot determines that the player violated its TOS, Riot could issue a penalty as if that behavior occurred in-game, according to the TOS. The new TOS rules also focus on stream sniping in which streamers and players hijack or interrupt another streams online sessions. The penalty system for these infractions are still in the early testing phases using a limited number of English-speaking Valorant creators. Repeat offenders of these and other infractrations could result in complete bans from all Riot Games accounts. The new TOS states that Riot can issue multiple penalties and bans for streamers and players who commit a seriously egregious violation or problematic behavior. Riot Games has dedicated a lot of time recently to discussing and exploring ways to rein in offensive and ill behavior in its games. Valorant studio head and Riot Games Senior Vice President Anna Donlon acknowledged in May that Riot absolutely needs to do better to protect its players laying out new actions they planned to take such as implementing new penalties and increasing support for manual reviews of reports, according to Eurogamer. Twitch has also taken steps to curb some of its users disturbing and damaging behavior. Last year, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy announced new terms for the streaming platform during the opening ceremony for TwitchCon in Las Vegas. The new rules established suspensions and bans for streamers who dox or swat other players and the ability for streamers and moderators to anonymously send warnings to chatters who commit bad behavior during sessions.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/riot-games-is-cracking-down-on-players-off-platform-conduct-173303058.html?src=rss
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Meta is said to be planning a fiber-optic subsea internet cable that will span the world and could cost north of $10 billion. The project, which was originally reported by subsea cable expert Sunil Tagare, could be formally announced early next year. However, sources linked to Meta told TechCrunch that the project is in the early stages. Only a few contractors would be capable of building out that infrastructure and many are tied up with commitments to other customers. If the project does come to fruition, its likely to take several years before the cable is laid and switched on. Meta is said to be the part-owner of more than a dozen subsea networks but this would be the first one that it owns and operates entirely. Google has a few of its own, though Amazon and Microsoft don't have any dedicated cables and are part owners of others. Meta will reportedly be the sole user of its cable. The company and its services are said to account for about 10 percent of global fixed internet usage (and about 22 percent of mobile traffic). At this point, Meta generates more revenue from international markets than it does in North America. The cable would give it greater ownership over its infrastructure in the aim of ensuring its services are as stable as possible, though ISPs and mobile providers will still of course be responsible for keeping users' devices connected. Meta has worked its own Wi-Fi and mobile internet projects, but it wound down the former in 2022. Its expected that the cable will run from the US east coast to South Africa then to India and the north coast of Australia before hitting the west coast. All told, the cable could be at least 25,000 miles or so long. That supposedly safe route would avoid areas where there are said to be "major single points of failure," according to Tagare. Those include the Red Sea, the South China Sea, Egypt, Marseilles, the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. It would also steer clear of many geopolitical hotspots. Two undersea cables were severed in the Baltic Sea over the couple of weeks. Investigators believe that a Chinese commercial trawler possibly acting under the influence of Russian intelligence cut the cables by dragging its anchor along the seabed. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-is-reportedly-planning-a-10-billion-globe-spanning-subsea-internet-cable-161613820.html?src=rss
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