We’ve asked Amazon for comment. In the past, the company has insisted that climate change activists were violating policies on external communication, and that it fired COVID-19 protesters for violating social distancing rules. Bray didn’t buy those claims, however, noting that leaders could have set conditions for participating (or at least objected) instead of simply firing people outright. “It was clear to any reasonable observer that [the workers] were turfed for whistleblowing,” he wrote.

The former executive stressed that he “escalated through the proper channels” using many of the arguments he’s making now, and that he won’t disclose what happened in those discussions.

It’s too soon to say if this will prompt other high-profile departures, let alone any changes in Amazon’s operations. However, this clearly isn’t what the internet giant would hope for. It draws more attention to labor issues at a time when the world is already looking closely — as Bray put it, Amazon is invoking the “Streisand effect.”