Amazon continues to prevent certain charitable organizations with a biblical worldview from participating in its charity program, Amazon Smile.
The Daily Caller reported last week that Amazon banned Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Ruth Institute (RI) from being beneficiaries of the Smile program after the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) placed the groups on its “hate group” list in 2016. The groups support religious freedom and promote biblical principles. Amazon’s website confirms that it uses info from entities including the SPLC’s “hate group” list to determine what companies to ban.
Customers who sign up for Smile can have 0.5 percent of their purchases donated to a charity enrolled by Amazon. Groups that the SPLC has designated as “hate groups,” however, remain banned just because SPLC takes issue with them.
SPLC’s website defines a hate group as:
"[A]n organization or collection of individuals that – based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. An organization does not need to have engaged in criminal conduct or have followed their speech with actual unlawful action to be labeled a hate group."
SPLC labels ADF as an “anti-LGBTQ” hate group that “supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S. and criminalization abroad.”
For its part, ADF says it is committed to protecting religious freedom for all and has an entire section on its website dedicated to refuting the SPLC’s claims.
“ADF is the world’s largest legal organization committed to protecting free speech, religious freedom, parental rights, and the sanctity of life and the family,” the website states. “And we work every day to build a society where life is cherished and protected and everyone can freely share their ideas, exercise their faith, and live together peacefully despite different beliefs, opinions, and backgrounds.”
Similarly, SPLC labels the Ruth Institute (RI) as an anti-LGBTQ group operating as a “vehicle for spreading the Catholic right-wing Gospel.” RI founder Jennifer Morse reiterated her group’s support for defending traditional family values.
“The Ruth Institute is a global, non-profit organization leading an international, interfaith coalition to defend the family and build a civilization of love,” she said on RI’s website. “If fighting sex abuse, pornography, and divorce makes us a hate group, so be it.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
