29 Nov Amazon’s Alexa Found To Promote Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories

Amazon is launching an investigation into it’s Alexa device, after the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism discovered that certain questions prompt antisemitic responses from Alexa.

Stephen Brashear / Getty Images

“We were appalled, therefore, to find that the Alexa voice service offers messages from antisemitic websites and conspiracy theories, using selective quotes and misleading sources in answer to a number of questions about Jewish people, the Holocaust and antisemitism,” a letter written by the group to UK Amazon executives states. “Can you explain how this has happened and what you will do, immediately, to rectify this? … The matter has been raised with the Home Secretary and we will be contacting the police, so that they might take a view on any breaches of communications or racial incitement legislation.”

The group found that in response to many questions about Judaism, Alexa would cite information from the “Jew Watch” Wikipedia page, “Jew Watch” being an antisemitic Holocaust denial website.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy towards discriminatory and offensive content,” Amazon executives said in a statement. “When we detect this type of content, we actively investigate and block responses that don’t meet our policy, as we did in this case.”

Amazon has also supported the Black Lives Matter movement, earlier this year.

[Via]