A bipartisan group of House lawmakers writes to Andy Jassy asking why Amazon still sells a food preservative used for suicide, an accounting of sales, and more
Even as grieving families tried to warn Amazon and other e-commerce sites of the danger, there were more purchases and more deaths. Tweets: @dkiesow , @jodikantor , @mega2e , @maxwellstrachan , @mega2e , @jkosseff , @zeldman , @robpegoraro , @epro , @cagoldberglaw , and @nataliapetrzela Tweets: Damon Kiesow / @dkiesow : I don't know enough to argue Amazon should not be selling this product, but this detail is wildly disturbing. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Jodi Kantor / @jodikantor : Why does Amazon continue to sell a preservative that teenagers are using to commit suicide, despite pleas from bereaved relatives? From @mega2e & @gabrieldance https://www.nytimes.com/... Megan Twohey / @mega2e : “This is a cost-benefit analysis of a small number of hobbyists using this chemical to cure meat at home versus these growing numbers of young people, including teenagers, using it to kill themselves.”-Kyle Pires, resident emergency room physician https://www.nytimes.com/... Maxwell / @maxwellstrachan : absolutely horrifying: amazon's algorithm identified a product that people were using to commit suicide. it then started to recommend additional products that made the suicide easier to executte. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Megan Twohey / @mega2e : NEW: A 16-year-old girl and two college freshmen are among the growing numbers of people who have died by suicide with a chemical purchased on Amazon. But when grieving families—and now lawmakers —complained, the company refused to act. w/@gabrieldance https://www.nytimes.com/... Jeff Kosseff / @jkosseff : This is not a terribly persuasive defense from Amazon. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... @zeldman : “Enough people purchased the preservative to attempt suicide that the company's algorithm began suggesting other products that customers frequently bought along with it to aid in such efforts.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Rob Pegoraro / @robpegoraro : I am so tired of giant companies behaving with replacement-level ethics. If Amazon needs a quick reminder of the whole “with great power comes great responsibility” idea, Spider-Man is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video. https://twitter.com/... Emil Protalinski / @epro : @Techmeme ... Amazon sells a preservative that kids and vulnerable adults use to attempt suicide, and suggests other products to help. Amazon never stopped showing ivermectin autocomplete search suggestions, months after promising to. The pattern? Profits over people. https://twitter.com/... Carrie Goldberg / @cagoldberglaw : Amazon overnight delivers a product kids and vulnerable adults use for suicide. We're honored to rep Ruth Scott and the Estate of Mikael Scott versus Amazon featured in this investigation by @mega2e @gabrieldance @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/... Natalia Mehlman Petrzela / @nataliapetrzela : “Enough people purchased the preservative to attempt suicide that the company's algorithm began suggesting other products that customers frequently bought along with it to aid in such efforts.” Utterly perverse example of “smart” technology in action https://www.nytimes.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The letter lands on top of a pattern the related coverage has been building for years: grieving families had already warned Amazon directly and been refused, the estate of Mikael Scott is suing over the same preservative, and the company's own recommendation algorithm reportedly surfaced additional products that could aid suicide. That last detail matters because it moves the story from passive listing to active algorithmic amplification.
It also fits the arc of prior platform-safety scrutiny — experts had already flagged how Facebook's opaque suicide-flagging fell short, and lawmakers are now separately probing whether social media has fueled the teen suicide crisis. The House letter extends that accountability from feeds to commerce: what a platform sells and recommends, not just what it shows.
First-order effects
- Andy Jassy and Amazon now face a formal bipartisan congressional demand for an accounting of the preservative's sales, on top of the Estate of Mikael Scott's legal action — two fronts where the company must disclose what it sold and what it knew after families warned it.
Second-order effects
- The scrutiny lands on the third-party Marketplace machinery itself: since seller services are a large, profitable revenue line and Amazon staff have previously consulted third-party sales data, lawmakers' questions about one listing force governance questions about the whole catalog and its recommendation engine.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, marketplace platforms face the same liability logic already applied to social feeds — duty-of-care arguments shifting from content moderation to product curation, with Congress using bipartisan letters as the opening move before any regulatory action.
The trend: Platform accountability is expanding from algorithmic content to algorithmic commerce, with lawmakers treating what marketplaces sell and recommend as a safety question on par with what feeds amplify.