Customers are pushing companies with streaming services such as Amazon and Apple to cut ties with the National Rifle Association or run the risk of losing subscribers, according to Bloomberg.
Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Roku and other streaming services offer NRA TV, a free online channel from the NRA. The NRA has faced severe public backlash in recent weeks after the recent mass shooting in Parkland, Fla. While Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has not yet responded to the public outcry, Roku said it will not remove the programming.
"While the vast majority of all streaming on our platform is mainstream entertainment, voices on all sides of an issue or cause are free to operate a channel," said Roku, according to Bloomberg. "We do not curate or censor based on viewpoint."
Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at the Cambridge-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the public's desire for streaming services to take a stand against the NRA comes in the face of political inaction.
"This is a problem that ought to be worked out in our legislature, but people are turning to corporations because it doesn’t seem like our legislators can get anything done," Mr. Zuckerman said, according to Bloomberg. "People feel so powerless to change things, this is how they feel they can bring change. I'd expect we're going to see a lot more of this."