Jeff Bezos says Amazon may break ties with SPLC

Amazon owner and CEO Jeff Bezos, who participated this past Wednesday in a House subcommittee hearing, dropped a bomb when questioned by Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz about the company's use of the Southern Poverty Law Center's services.

Bezos said that he is looking at alternative options to the SPLC, and agreed with Gaetz’s harsh criticism of the far-left radical organization. He said he would "like a better source if he can get it." Bezos added that he “would like suggestions on better or additional sources.”

Gaetz laid out a long list of charities tied to Christianity and Judaism that had been somehow labeled as “extremist” charities by the SPLC.

The issue in question has to do with Amazon Smile, which is part of the Amazon platform that allows customers to make a donation to the charity they choose from a list every time they make a purchase. More precisely, the issue is that Amazon is currently using the SPLC’s suggestions to define that list.

The SPLC is considered by many people on both the left and right ends of the political spectrum to be an extremely biased organization with a clear agenda which prevents them from properly executing their stated mission, to vet charity organizations.

“I’m just wondering why you would place your confidence in a group that seems to be so out of step and seems to take mainstream Christian doctrine and label it as hate,” Gaetz said to Bezos.

Jeremy Tedesco, a top official and senior legal council for Alliance for the Defence of Freedom, an organization currently labeled by SPLC as “extremists” weighed in with the press on the issue.

“The SPLC actively lobbies corporations to harm and economically discriminate against groups and people they don’t like,” stated Tedesco, who added that the SPLC has been “completely discredited” and welcomed Bezos’s criticism of the organization.

Amazon has garnered negative media attention for the working conditions of its warehouses, sweetheart tax deals with local regional and national authorities all over the world, and even questionable products they sell.