Did Jeff Bezos deplatform Trump? Amazon ignores RNC Day 1 after livestreaming all 4 DNC nights, viewers claim
Multiple conservative social media users took to Twitter on Monday, August 24, to claim that Amazon Prime Video did not offer a live stream of the Republican National Convention (RNC) during primetime that day. They alleged that although Amazon live-streamed all four nights of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) last week, they faced difficulty in finding a live stream of RNC's first day, suggesting a possible RNC blackout by the company.
Breitbart News also released a report claiming that it made several attempts to search for a primetime RNC live-stream on Amazon, however, it only found archived RNC footage from earlier in the day. The outlet and a few Twitter users also claimed that searching for RNC coverage on Amazon was more difficult than searching for DNC footage. Search result for the term "DNC" brought up Amazon’s live streams from all four days of the Democratic National Convention, however, the same search for "RNC" did not reflect anything related to the Republican convention on Monday.
One Twitter user wrote: "@AmazonHelp Are you live streaming the Republican National Convention tonight?" To which the Amazon customer service replied, writing: Thanks for reaching out to us today. The RNC was live-streamed on August 24 from 9 to 10:30 am EST (one day only). ^AA" The customer then responded saying they were canceling their subscription: "So no Prime Time coverage got it. Canceling Amazon Prime."
@AmazonHelp Are you live streaming the Republican National Convention tonight?
— T̵̛̛̈́͋̍͛̇̂͊͊̅̿͛́̈́͐̔͒̀́̔͗̑͐̈́̀̾̈́͌̂̌͊̂͒͋̏̆̀͘̚͘̚͘͠͝͝͠͝ (@demorattrap) August 25, 2020
While another user tagged President Donald Trump and shared the search results of RNC with their tweet, writing: "Why does amazon prime show so much love to the DNC and not the RNC???@realDonaldTrump"
Why does amazon prime show so much love to the DNC and not the RNC???@realDonaldTrump @DonaldJTrumpJr pic.twitter.com/Ai5eb1bTYq
— Allen Holden (@AllenHolden8) August 25, 2020
"RNC is not listed on Amazon Live events like the DNC. You have to search for it. Once again, unfair evil practice to disenfranchise Americans," another user wrote.
RNC is not listed on Amazon Live events like the DNC. You have to search for it. Once again, unfair evil practice to disenfranchise Americans.
— Randy Hall (@RandyHa30341837) August 24, 2020
A fourth wrote: "Where can I watch the convention??? No channel on my UVERS! No playing on Prime?? WHY???"
@GOP Where can I watch the convention??? No channel on my UVERS! No playing on Prime?? WHY???
— NO LNG on Railroads! (@smehiel) August 25, 2020
President Donald Trump and Amazon have had a long-standing feud, with the Republican leader currently accusing the company of using the US Postal Service as a cheap delivery mechanism for its packages. Trump, last week, had slammed Amazon during an interview with Fox News, saying: "Amazon and other companies like it, they come and they drop all of their mail into a post office. They drop packages into the post office by the thousands and then they say, ‘Here, you deliver them.’ We lose $3 and $4 a package on average. We lose massive amounts of money.” Trump, last week, on August 19, had again slammed Jeff Bezos-owned company on Twitter, writing: "@Amazon, and others in that business, should be charged (by the U.S. Postal System) much more per package, and the Post Office would be immediately brought back to “good health”, now vibrant, with ALL jobs saved. No pass on to customers. Get it done!"
Trump’s remarks against Amazon echoed similar comments made by him in April this year and a series of attacks in 2018, when the president had claimed Amazon was costing the post office “billions.”