Thread by @DaniaRajendra

So, if you're like most people, the primary way you interact directly with Amazon is buying things via their website. (More people than are customers subsidize them with our shared public dollars, but that's indirect, and also a different thread.) 1/x #MonopolyIsNoGame

So, people tend to think, Amazon is huge! So many people buy things! Selling things (ie, actual objects) must be how they make so much money. But that's not actually how they make *most* of the money. The biggest revenue driver is Amazon Web Services.

Or, as this report puts it, "Profits earned through its cloud services enable Amazon to invest heavily into expanding its cloud operation, as well as to support its other lines of business."

Amazon disputes the idea that they use the money they make selling services to businesses and government agencies to subsidize selling objects to humans. According to the report, Amazon says this is a "myth."

Also this report: "However, Amazon failed to produce the financial data that would have enabled Subcommittee staff to make an independent assessment."

What this means to you, an individual human, is this: blocking Amazon from your life means giving up the internet. gizmodo.com/i-tried-to-blo…

which means, if you're upset about how Amazon (ab)uses data, their role in enabling immigration enforcement (there is other news today) + law enforcement, how they treat their workers - come link up with thousands of other people. #BreakUpBigTech

bit.ly/MonopolyIsNoGa…