Amazon has removed some of its Nazi and neo-Nazi items for sale following angry complaints from prominent international Jewish organizations.
The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, in a statement on its website Thursday, sharply criticized Amazon for “monetizing Nazi and neo-Nazi paraphernalia,” in an email to the company. It demanded that “these items be removed immediately.”
“At a time when 63% of America’s religious-based hate crimes target American Jews (2.4% of the US population), blacks are once again the number one target of race-based hate crimes. And Amazon is a business model that sells hate symbols and neo-Nazi paraphernalia,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of the Global Social Action Center, said in a statement.
The center provided screenshots of some of the products for sale, including swastika necklaces and bracelets, other jewelry, and badges and pins featuring or reminiscent of Nazi symbols.
In a statement to the New York Post, Amazon said it uses “proactive mechanisms” to “uncover offensive listings before customers see them. We continuously scan our products for text and images determined to violate our policies and remove them immediately.”
A company official also noted that “the area of potentially offensive products is nuanced and varied” and the number of products offered on the site is enormous.
Amazon has removed many items, but similar items are still being sold, Gizmodo reported Friday. Cooper told Gizmodo that Amazon has to deal with the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He is annoyed that the company is not active in keeping hate off the site.
“It’s totally unacceptable for the biggest economic power on the block to play a game of whack-a-mole instead of fixing things,” Cooper told Gizmodo.
Amazon has a policy regarding offensive and controversial material. Prohibits products that promote intolerance of race, religion, or sexual orientation.
In a similar controversy, Walmart last week stopped selling boots marked “KKK” online. It told Business Insider that it will investigate how the “product” first appeared on the platform.
This isn’t the first time Amazon has gotten into trouble with an anti-Semitic product.
A year ago, the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, asking him to list more than 20 Nazi propaganda films for sale on Amazon’s online portal or streamed on the Amazon Prime video network. I have requested Amazon to remove it.
