Can Berkeley Boycott Amazon?

As consumers, workers and communities push back against the seemingly boundless power and wealth of big tech companies, they’re starting to find it may be harder than it sounds to quit corporations that provide now-crucial services.

My colleague Kate Conger, who covers privacy, policy and labor for The Times’ Tech team, wrote about a Berkeley City Council proposal to boycott Amazon:

Under state law, no city in California is allowed to share data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But city officials have been left to determine how they’ll comply with the law — and many cities are now scrutinizing the behavior of the tech companies they rely on for city services.

Richmond approved an ordinance in June that will end its contract with Vigilant Solutions, a data analytics company that does business with ICE. Other Bay Area cities, including Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda, are weighing similar proposals that, if enacted, could lead the cities to sever ties with tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft.

Berkeley’s City Council is weighing a proposal to boycott Amazon in protest against the tech giant’s contracts with ICE and Customs and Border Protection. Given Amazon’s business relationships with these agencies, Berkeley should “commit to finding ethical alternatives,” two City Council members, Kriss Worthington and Cheryl Davila, wrote in a memo. The City Council is also scrutinizing its business with Microsoft and Thompson Reuters over the companies’ ICE contracts.

“We’re subsidizing these deportation policies,” said Brian Hofer, a lawyer who has pushed cities to adopt legislation that limits their business relationships with tech firms that contract with ICE.

The Berkeley City Council is expected to debate the proposed legislation this month. Berkeley, which was at the forefront of the sanctuary city movement, relies on Amazon for a range of web-hosting and infrastructure services. Now, the city is struggling to align its sanctuary traditions with its digital needs.

Dee Williams-Ridley, the city manager, recommended against the boycott because it would be too costly for the city to move off Amazon.

“Adoption of the proposed Amazon boycott would have a huge negative impact to the citywide operations,” Williams-Ridley wrote in a memo reviewed by The New York Times.

The city uses Amazon to host housing and mental health programs, do cybersecurity, and to manage city documents. It also relies on other tech companies, such as Airbnb and Nextdoor, which in turn host their services on Amazon servers.

“I sort of despair about what we can do at this local level, frankly,” said Kate Harrison, a member of the City Council. “If we identify a company involved in data brokerage for ICE, and we have an alternative, we should take the alternative. It’s a balancing act.”

Hofer said the impact would be stronger as more cities pass similar legislation and he hoped to bring the initiative statewide. Starting in Silicon Valley is important because of the region’s connection to the technology industry, he added.

“It’s symbolic that we’re doing it here; we’re the same people that are creating the technology that’s doing this,” Hofer said.

“It’s ideological and not necessarily grounded in practicality,” said Susan Wengraf, a City Council member. “It’s Berkeley,” she added with a soft laugh. “What can I tell you?”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.