The Action Center on Race and the Economy and a coalition of other progressive groups on January 14 called on Amazon, Google, Blackstone, and Fidelity to cut ties with the American far right.
The call came as a direct result of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but, as ACRE Co-Executive Director Saqib Bhatti said, the need for divestment is not new.
“Our democracy has been under attack by armed white supremacists, thanks to wealthy corporations that support, bankroll, and enable racist politicians and are furthering the rise of fascism,” said Bhatti. “Blackstone and Fidelity need to stop helping fund fascists and white supremacists, and Amazon and Google need to stop giving a megaphone to every neo-Nazi with a conspiracy theory.”
Shutting down web access
ACRE, a progressive organization that works for economic and racial justice, joined with groups like the Athena Action Network to call on Amazon and Google to shut down far-right groups' access to the Internet.
Amazon's powerful Amazon Web Services hosts a number of hate group sites, said Sasha Hammad, an organizer at Athena, and the company has a responsibility to cut off extremist groups from the resource. The conglomerate also allows a number of hate groups to take in proceeds from the AmazonSmile program.
While the company cut far-right social network Parler off of AWS last week, said Hammad, that's not enough.
“Amazon knew Parler was rife with hate speech and conspiracy theories well before the Capitol Riot," Hammad said. "Removing Parler after death and destruction shows Amazon only intervenes after an act of violence has already occurred."
"It’s a simple choice," added Hammad. "Either Amazon can allow these groups to grow, or choose to disassociate from the groups to save our democracy.”
Google's YouTube video platform should similarly be cut off, said ACRE Co-Executive Director Maurice BP-Weeks. YouTube has become a "key propagation tool for fascist movement-building worldwide," said BP-Weeks.
“YouTube lets known bigots monetize their videos by placing ads on them," BP-Weeks said. "Right now, supporters of last week’s insurrection are using YouTube’s platform to fundraise off live video footage taken during the Capitol riots."
The service should deplatform far-right extremists, he said, and cut off their monetization opportunities.
Defunding hate
Fidelity and Blackstone both serve as conduits of funding to the right—and they need to cut off the cash, said Muslim Justice League Executive Director Fatema Ahmad. Ahmad noted that Fidelity's charitable arm includes "massive amounts of donor-advised fund providers" that funnel cash into the far-right movement.
"We’ve met with them in the past, and yet they've decided to continue business as usual and to not filter out these white supremacist groups,” said Ahmad. "We demand Fidelity stop funding fascism, and call on them to ensure no more dollars flow to hate groups.”
The Blackstone Group, led by CEO Stephen Schwarzman, has shoveled over $60 million into GOP coffers. That means the firm "played a critical role supporting Trump enablers," said Americans for Financial Reform Private Equity Campaigns Manager Ricardo Valadez.
Schwarzman himself is a big Trump backer, furthering the problematic nature of the firm's relationship with the far-right.
“Following the election, Shawarzman participated in a call to promote Trump’s conspiracy theories, and supported the Georgia SuperPAC after it became clear that Trump would dispute the count," said Valadaez. "We demand Blackstone halt all donations to Republicans until everyone who encouraged the insurrection is held to account and removed from office.”
While the so-called "Fascist Four" have yet to live up to the hopes of the coalition, there is some hope that corporate America is coming to its sense, said Anna Fink, executive director of the Amalgamated Foundation. But the denial of future funding for extremists, though welcome, cannot be the end of the story.
“We invite corporations and philanthropies to join us in standing up to hate and redirecting their resources to rebuilding our democracy," said Fink. "There are local organizations in every state working tirelessly every day to protect, reform, and preserve our democracy.”
