The U.S. economy is deeply rooted in structural racism and was founded on the exploitation and enslavement of Black Americans and displacement of Indigenous tribes from their land. Now more than ever, investors must recognize our responsibility in this harmful system and leverage investments to advance racial justice in all forms. Following worldwide racial justice uprisings in 2020, many companies took to social media to support the Black Lives Matter movement. However, many of these same companies continue to aid institutions that uphold racist systems through their business practices. For example, many companies profit from selling surveillance technology to military, police, and immigration enforcement, who use it to surveil, over-police, and racially profile Black, brown, and immigrant communities. The UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism reported that “emerging digital technologies exacerbate and compound existing inequities, many of which exist along racial, ethnic and national origin grounds.”

Investor Advocates for Social Justice (IASJ) affiliates engage with companies whose operations and products further systematic racism, calling on them to improve their human rights policies and risk management practices. Proposals filed this proxy season with Amazon and Northrop Grumman on surveillance technology and other harmful products received strong support last season with 32 percent and 24 percent, respectively.

Amazon's contracts to provide surveillance technologies and cloud products to law and immigration enforcement and other agencies perpetuate human rights violations, including systemic racism. Amazon’s Ring doorbell system has partnerships to share video surveillance data with 1,600 police departments, which disproportionately harms people of color, immigrants, and activists. Likewise, Amazon Web Services long facilitated the spread of white supremacist organizing on Parler before abruptly rescinding services only after online organizing led to the violent U.S. Capitol attack. Increased oversight and due diligence of high-risk customers and technologies is needed to prevent, mitigate, and remedy harms to groups disproportionately impacted by Amazon's business model of surveillance capitalism. The proposal at Amazon seeks disclosure of the company’s customer due diligence, to ensure it effectively mitigate negative human rights impacts associated with customers’ use of its products or services.

Similarly, Northrop Grumman contracts with U.S. government and foreign agencies to develop artificial intelligence and surveillance products with significant human rights risks. In addition to its harmful weapons business, the company is developing a database of biometric and biographical data for the Department of Homeland Security to hold sensitive information on 260 million people, which presents serious risks of privacy rights, increased surveillance, racial bias, and harm to immigrant communities. This proposal asks Northrop Grumman to report on its human rights impact assessments and examine the actual and potential human rights impacts associated with high-risk products and services, including those in conflict-affected areas.

IASJ encourages all shareholders to support these two proposals calling for stronger due diligence around surveillance technology to encourage companies to address the ways their business models contribute to systemic racism and injustice.

Mary Beth Gallagher
Executive Director, Investor Advocates for Social Justice