The Wilmington Journal

6
BUSINESS Thursday, July 1-31, 2023
Carlos Watson, Tech Founder of Ozy, Says Prosecution is Racially Biased
BY LAUREN VICTORIA
BURKE
NNPA NEWSWIRE
CONTRIBUTOR
Carlos Watson, the cofounder
of Ozy Media, is
loudly claiming on social
media and in a well-produced
video that he has
been targeted as a Black
entrepreneur in the mostly
white tech world.
Ozy collapsed after
Watson was indicted for
fraud in February 2023.
Federal prosecutors alleged
that Watson and his company
defrauded investors out
of “tens of millions.”
Prosecutors claim that
Watson ran a company that
was a fraudulent scheme to
fool financial supporters
based on false information
about Ozy.
But in the tech world,
over-inflating user data and
BY STACY M. BROWN
NNPA NEWSWIRE SENIOR
N A T I O N A L
CORRESPONDENT
success is generally standard
practice. Watson is
arguing that his prosecution
is racially biassed and
that he was using often used
tactics by tech entrepreneurs.
“The U.S. legal system
criminalizes the actions of
black #entrepreneurs such
as OZY Media Founder
Carlos Watson while giving
their white counterparts a
pass. Black entrepreneurs
receive 1% of venture funding
and 51% of the prosecution,”
wrote Watson on
social media on June 21.
Watson’s legal defense
team is asking the
Department of Justice to
conduct a racial bias investigation
on the Brooklyn
prosecutors who are working
on his case. Watson
claims that the three white
prosecutors focused on him
have overwhelmingly prosecuted
Black people and
other people of color while
only ten percent of their
prosecutions are Black.
In February, federal prosecutors
accused Watson of
running Ozy “like a criminal
organization.”
“There’s a not-so-secret
track record of double standards
in prosecution of
Black people for identical
allegations as our counterparts.
Acknowledging this
does not suggest indifference,
but of the reality we
face,” wrote Dr. Nehemiah
Mabry on twitter regarding
Watson’s prosecution.
Ozy recently released a
statement regarding ten one
thousand dollar grants that
have not been delivered to
their “genius award” recipients.
Kenneth Montgomery, an
attorney on Watson’s legal
team, said in a statement
that, “the unwarranted
criminal charges brought
the company to a complete
standstill and forced the cessation
of operations. The
Watson family firmly
believes in making higher
education accessible to all,
which is why they co-founded
Achieva College Prep
Service well before Mr.
Watson founded OZY.”
Carlos Watson, 53, is a
graduate of Harvard
University, Stanford
University and Stanford
Law School.
Lauren Victoria Burke is
an independent journalist
and the host of the podcast
BURKEFILE and publisher
of Black Virginia News. She
is a political analyst who
appears regularly on
#RolandMartinUnfiltered.
She may be contacted at
LBurke007@gmail.com and
on twitter at @LVBurke
Federal Trade Commission Sues Amazon Over Deceptive Prime Subscription Practices
BY STACY M. BROWN
NNPA NEWSWIRE SENIOR
NATIONAL
CORRESPONDENT
Amazon is facing legal
action from the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) for
allegedly engaging in deceptive
practices to entice consumers
into signing up for its
Prime service and making it
difficult for them to cancel
their subscriptions.
The suit marks the most
aggressive action taken
against the e-commerce giant
by FTC Chair Lina Khan,
who has been vocal in her
criticism of big tech companies.
The lawsuit, filed in the
U.S. District Court for the
Western District of
Washington, accuses Amazon
of utilizing “dark patterns,”
manipulative design tactics
on its website, to steer users
towards subscribing to
Prime.
Once consumers decided to
cancel, they encountered a
convoluted and confusing
process.
According to a statement
by Khan, “Amazon tricked
and trapped people into
recurring subscriptions
without their consent, not
only frustrating users but
also costing them significant
money.”
The lawsuit counts as the
first time the FTC has taken
Amazon to court under
Khan’s leadership as she
seeks to intensify regulatory
scrutiny over the company.
Given their influence in
online commerce, she has
been a vocal advocate for
more decisive action against
big tech firms.
While the FTC has been
investigating Amazon’s practices
for several years,
observers reportedly are
closely watching to see how
Khan will proceed.
Although the lawsuit falls
short of the extensive
antitrust case that Amazon’s
detractors demanded, it does
reflect a more considerable
effort by regulators to limit
the influence of tech giants
like Amazon, Apple, Google,
Microsoft, and Meta (formerly
Facebook).
The legal action comes
after Amazon settled previous
FTC cases that predate
Khan’s tenure.
Last month, the company
agreed to a $25 million settlement
over allegations that its
Alexa home assistant devices
had illegally collected children’s
data.
The FTC also resolved
another privacy case involving
Amazon’s Ring home
security subsidiary.
Amazon Prime has attracted
subscribers for years with
Photo: Ozy Media / Wikimedia Commons
OZY Co-Founder Carlos Watson sat down with President
Clinton on Nov. 9th 2013 to get his opinion on a number
of topics.
SCOTUS Strikes Down Student Loan Forgiveness Plan
The Supreme Court has
blocked President Joe
Biden’s ambitious student
loan forgiveness program,
which aimed to provide up to
$20,000 in relief to millions of
borrowers.
The decision comes as a
blow to the Biden administration’s
efforts to alleviate the
burden of student debt on
struggling individuals.
President Biden, determined
to support student
loan borrowers, plans to
announce new actions during
his upcoming address later
today.
The source reveals that
while the White House
strongly disagrees with the
Supreme Court’s ruling, they
had been preparing for such
an outcome.
Considering the decision,
the administration intends to
emphasize to borrowers and
their families that
Republicans are responsible
for denying them the muchneeded
relief that President
Biden has been fighting to
deliver.
The White House said it
remains committed to its
mission of easing the financial
strain on Americans burdened
by student loans.
Democrats for Education
Reform DC (DFER DC), an
organization dedicated to
improving education policies,
issued a statement
expressing disappointment
in the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Jessica Giles, Executive
Director of DFER DC, condemned
the conservative justices
for what she perceived
as their alignment with
Republican political interests.
Giles argued that the decision
has not only disrupted
the lives of over 40 million
student loan borrowers but
has also dealt a particularly
devastating blow to Black
Americans.
She asserts that the ruling
will exacerbate the racial
wealth gap, push numerous
borrowers into financial
hardship, and erode public
trust in the Supreme Court.
In response to this setback,
DFER DC urged Mayor
Bowser and the D.C. Council
to take proactive measures to
expand existing programs
aimed at reducing student
loan debt and fixing the flaws
within the higher education
system.
The organization said it
believes that local initiatives
The decision comes as a blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to alleviate the burden of student debt
on struggling individuals.
can help mitigate the negative
impact of the Supreme
Court’s decision and provide
much-needed support to borrowers
in the absence of federal
relief.
President Biden’s student
loan forgiveness program,
with an estimated cost of
$400 billion, was designed to
offer significant relief to borrowers
burdened by the
weight of their student loans.
However, with the program
now blocked by the Supreme
Court, the administration
will need to explore alternative
avenues to address the
pressing issue of student
debt in the United States.
“This Court clearly has a
self-imposed mandate to legislate
from the bench. They
have waged war on women,
unions, Black and Brown
Americans, the LGBTQ+
community, religious freedom,
and democracy,” the
Rev. Al Sharpton said in a
statement.
“In the last two days, they
have set their sights on college
students to either block
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, accuses Amazon of utilizing
“dark patterns,” manipulative design tactics on its website, to steer users towards subscribing to
Prime.
enticing promises of expedited
shipping, access to a
streaming video library, and
other benefits.
As of 2021, the program
boasted over 200 million
members, generating $35 billion
in subscription revenue.
However, the FTC claims
that Amazon made it exceedingly
challenging for customers
to purchase on its
platform without subscribing
to Prime during checkout.
Furthermore, the agency
argues that the company
made it arduous for users to
them from getting into elite
institutions or put a financial
albatross around their neck
so they can’t succeed.
“We applaud President
Biden’s commitment to following
through on this campaign
pledge, because millions
of Black and Brown
Americans are counting on
it.”
locate the page allowing them
to cancel the service, bombarding
them with offers
intended to dissuade cancellation.
The lawsuit comes after
years of media attention and
advocacy groups highlighting
the difficulties consumers
face when attempting
to cancel their Prime subscriptions.
In a 2021 complaint to the
District of Columbia attorney
general, the Electronic
Privacy Information Center,
an advocacy group, accused
Amazon of employing
manipulative design tactics
to frustrate users’ cancellation
intentions.
In a 2022 report, the FTC
pledged to crack down on
design practices aimed at
deceiving or obstructing consumers’
efforts to cancel a service,
emphasizing that they are
closely monitoring dark patterns.
With the lawsuit, the FTC
said it intends to send a strong
message that such practices
will not go unnoticed or
unchallenged.
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