The FTC and attorneys general, however, asserted that Amazon’s top executives — “including its ultimate decisionmakers and the architects of the conduct at issue” — indeed used disappearing messages on the app as a “side channel” to discuss business during the regulators’ pre-complaint investigation.
“When Amazon eventually imaged select Signal users’ phones, it took over 2,900 screenshots showing more than 300 instances where disappearing messages were enabled or the timer setting was changed after Amazon was on notice of plaintiffs’ investigation,” according to the filing.
The FTC and the states presented two possible explanations for the record before the court: either Amazon’s leadership used disappearing messages relevant to the litigation, continued this practice after the investigation began, and failed to preserve the evidence, or senior leadership discussed work-related matters on Signal for over two and a half years without using disappearing messages for anything relevant to the case. The plaintiffs argue that only the former explanation is plausible.
