--- title: "Amazon Discussed Banning the Words “Fairness” and “Pay Raise”" description: "Amazon is reportedly working on an internal messaging app — and employees working on it have discussed banning a hilarious number of labor-related words." date: "2022-04-05" modified: "2022-04-05" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-discussed-banning-words" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "Amazon" - "commerce" - "labor" - "the digest" --- # Amazon Discussed Banning the Words “Fairness” and “Pay Raise” ![Amazon is reportedly working on an internal messaging app — and employees working on it have discussed banning a hilarious number of labor-related words.]() *NEW DELHI, INDIA - JANUARY 16: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at the Amazon's annual Smbhav event at Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, on January 16, 2020 in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Pradeep Gaur/Mint via Getty Images) \Image: Getty Images\* ## Primeopticon On the heels of the first of its warehouses [voting to unionize]() late last week, more embarrassing news has emerged for online retail megacorporation Amazon. In a [new scoop from the *Intercept*'s unstoppable Ken Klippenstein](), it turns out that the company is working on an internal messaging app — and employees working on it have discussed banning a hilarious number of labor-related words, including "union," "restrooms," and "pay raise." The extraordinarily censorious list of banned words — it also reportedly includes the words "ethics," "fairness," "diversity" and even the phrase "this is concerning" — almost sounds like a joke. But it does provide a timely peek at anxieties inside the world's largest online marketplace about the future of what it's often seemed to view as a disposable work force who prepares its goods for shipment. And in that sense, the list may well provide a fascinating glimpse of the future of online commerce. ## Pain Forest This isn't the first time Amazon has publicly bungled attempts to control the discourse about it. In 2019, the company was [widely mocked]() for recruiting employees to post pro-Amazon talking points on social media as "Ambassadors." An Amazon spokesperson told the *Intercept* that the banned word list "has not been approved yet and may change significantly or even never launch at all." "If it does launch at some point down the road," said the Amazon spokesperson, "there are no plans for many of the words you’re calling out to be screened. The only kinds of words that may be screened are ones that are offensive or harassing, which is intended to protect our team." Whether that claim seems plausible is something readers will have to decide for themselves. **More on Amazon:** [*Amazon Is Quietly Researching How to Block Out the Sun*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()