On Wednesday, Amazon filed a lawsuit to block The Washington Post‘s request to acquire records relating to the tech company’s in-development satellite initiative.
According to its website, the initiative, Project Kuiper, is meant to “increase global broadband access through a constellation of more than 3,000 satellites in low Earth orbit” in order to bring “fast, affordable broadband to unserved and underserved communities around the world.” The project’s purpose makes it a potential competitor to Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink system, a satellite constellation similarly designed to provide global access to broadband internet.
In 2024, one Project Kuiper facility was investigated four times by Washington state’s Department of Labor and Industries. The Washington Post subsequently moved in November of last year to receive access to, among other documents, “copies of inspection records, investigation notes, interview notes and complaints” that were created during and as a result of the investigations.
Amazon has now filed a complaint to block the disclosure of these records. The company’s motion is not filed against The Washington Post, though, but rather Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries. In the motion, Amazon alleges that the records in question contain “proprietary information” and “trade secrets” and “sensitive personal information, including the identity of Amazon’s Project Kuiper employees.”
The company says it seeks to protect “a subset” of the requested records the release of which would allegedly “irreparably harm Amazon in such a way that monetary damages would be inadequate to make Amazon whole.” Amazon further argues that the trade secrets that are purportedly in jeopardy of being disclosed give the company a “competitive edge over competitors” and “derive their independent economic value from being generally unknown to the public at large.”
Amazon argues this makes them exempt from a request like the one filed by The Post. The company additionally claims in its motion that the release of these documents would “have a substantial likelihood of threatening public safety” and “threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and/or availability of private and public infrastructure and telecommunications networks.”
Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries previously determined that documents in question were not exempt from public release like Amazon contends. With this complaint, Amazon hopes to reverse that decision.
Jeff Bezos notably sits as Amazon’s executive chairman and also owns The Washington Post. This clash between The Post’s investigative efforts and Amazon’s secrecy comes at a time when many are questioning whether or not Bezos’ involvement in so many different, high-profile entities creates inevitable and troubling conflicts of interest.
