As you embark on your trip into space, you leave behind a company that claims to be the most customer-obsessed company on Earth.

It is clear to us today that Amazon has lost its touch with reality, fighting and crushing smaller businesses like Fakespot, that actually help consumers fight fake reviews and scams on Amazon. We empower consumers with data to make more informed decisions about their purchase decisions, but apparently Amazon does not care about consumers.

Actions to remove Fakespot from the App Store prove that Amazon is not a customer-obsessed company. Instead, Amazon is profit-obsessed and will do anything to hide the truth from its customers. Consumers and the people deserve much better.

Amazon has grown so much and so fast that the amount of fraud on the platform exploded in lockstep. You lead a brainwashing marketing campaign to convince us all that Amazon is the best thing for consumers because of low prices and easy returns. The prices on Amazon aren’t even the best anymore. Consumers have become so dependent on Amazon because we pay for Prime every year, even when the cost goes up, and that initial Prime investment causes us to think twice about going to a competitor because we already paid for shipping.

Jeff, this great power you wield demands great responsibility. You have not done enough to protect us from brands and sellers who lie, cheat and deceive. You make your own rules and ignore the law to do whatever you want, to whomever you want, including your own corporate and warehouse employees. This is not what an ethical, responsible, and inclusive technology company should be doing, but there is more to the story.

We all think we are only buying products from Amazon, but at the end of day, we are the actual product. Amazon knows more about their customers than any other company. But armed with a monstrous corporate PR machine you get away with it and you’re only considered an eCommerce marketplace with a giant smile for a face. Amazon, through its fly-wheel, has enough data to know who our partners are, what medical conditions we have, what income bracket we’re in, and on and on. You have a treasure trove of data about all of us. This is what I would call the greatest heist of the 21st century. It was achieved by duping all of us into thinking that Amazon is actually a net-positive creation for society and something that we actually needed in our lives. The enlightenment is here.

The last time I checked on customer-centricity, it did not involve knowing who our partners are and what ailments we have. When did you lose sight of that?

Fakespot and the apps we build, protect consumers from all of these problems and bring radical transparency to the Amazon platform. You may not realize it, but Fakespot was actually started after I was ripped off on Amazon after seeing that you were doing nothing about it. Now we are in 2021 and the problem has only grown exponentially. Fakespot has been innovating and growing to solve the problems of fake reviews, deceptive sellers and eCommerce fraud because you have failed to protect your own consumers!

It is a shame that Amazon considers Fakespot a threat. We are a small 20-person team based in New York City that is supremely passionate about bringing back trust to the Internet and eradicating the problems you’ve failed so hard at fixing. While we are working on solving the problem of disinformation on the Internet, your team is working hard to destroy us. The reasons Amazon has listed for the takedown notice to Apple for our iOS app are deceptive, misleading and untruthful, just like the many reviews on Amazon.

As you enter space while looking back on Earth, I hope you ask yourself the question: Which side am I on? The consumer or my never-ending wallet?

Sincerely,

Saoud