Protesters on Tuesday gathered outside Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting in Seattle to rally against the company’s advertising relationship with Breitbart News, according to a new report.
The online retailing giant advertises on the far-right website, including through third-party ad exchanges.
A coalition of advocacy groups delivered petitions totaling over 1 million signatures urging Amazon to abandon ties with the site, CNN Money reported.
Groups including MoveOn, Sleeping Giants and Ultraviolent demonstrated against Amazon, with protesters reportedly chanting.
{mosads}Sleeping Giants is now raising funds to erect a billboard in Seattle urging Amazon to “stop funding bigotry” and sever links to Breitbart.
“To date we have convinced more than 2,100 brands and organizations to remove ads from this extremist site,” the group’s fundraising page says.
“Unfortunately, AMAZON remains one of Breitbart’s biggest advertisers, despite our repeated emails, tweets, calls and letters,” it adds. The group said it has raised $7,251 of its $8,000 goal.
BuzzFeed last month reported that 564 Amazon employees signed an email to CEO Jeff Bezos and Amazon executive Jeff Blackburn urging the company to stop advertising on Breitbart.
“Amazon funding Breitbart has been a point of discussion for employees continuously for many months both on email lists and in person, as well as with our neighbors, friends and family,” the email said. “It is influencing employee morale and possibly even employee retention.”
Since late 2016, major brands including BMW, Kellogg and Nordstrom have all ceased advertising on the site.
White House chief strategist Steve Bannon previously served as Breitbart’s executive chairman before joining President Trump’s campaign.