FTC Accuses Jeff Bezos and Amazon Executives of Deleting Text Messages

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has made a startling allegation against Amazon, claiming that founder Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy engaged in discussions about “sensitive business matters” through now-deleted text messages on the encrypted Signal messaging app. The FTC filed this claim in court on Thursday as part of an ongoing antitrust case against the retail giant.

According to the filing, senior Amazon executives, including Bezos and top lawyer David Zapolsky, used Signal from April 2019 to May 2022 and regularly deleted messages using the app’s disappearing feature. The FTC criticized Amazon for not instructing employees to preserve these messages until well after the investigation had begun.

This revelation is just one piece of a larger antitrust case that the FTC initiated in September, accusing Amazon of maintaining a monopoly through anticompetitive practices. Amazon has pushed back against these claims, arguing that the lawsuit could harm both consumers and independent businesses that rely on its platform.

In response to the FTC’s allegations, Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle dismissed them as “baseless” and stated that the company had disclosed its use of Signal to the FTC years ago. Doyle also emphasized that the FTC has access to a vast amount of data, including millions of documents and terabytes of information, to understand Amazon’s decision-making process.

As the antitrust case continues to unfold, the FTC is seeking more information about how Amazon’s leadership instructed employees to use Signal and whether there were specific guidelines regarding message deletion. The outcome of this case could have significant implications for Amazon and the broader tech industry.