Yikes.
Death Merch
Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify is defending the right of its clients to sell antisemitic, Holocaust-denying merchandise on its platform.
As Bloomberg reports, a store identified by the Anti-Defamation League is selling anti-Jewish propaganda, including parodies of the likeness of Anne Frank. Naturally, the store is marketing the problematic wares on Elon Musk’s X-formerly-Twitter, a place that has become the de facto online forum for hate speech and disinformation.
The seller fired back, arguing in an email to Bloomberg that “Free speech is our inalienable right and extends to what we wear.”
But Shopify maintained an icy silence in response to multiple requests for comment. In other words, the company seems glad to take a cut from sales of fascist propaganda.
Fuel Meet Fire
Complicating matters, Canada outlawed Holocaust denial in 2022, with Montreal Holocaust Museum spokeswoman Sarah Fogg telling the outlet that the merchandise “would absolutely consist of Holocaust distortion and denial.”
It’s already a highly precarious situation with Israel’s attacks on Gaza, deemed by many as a full-blown genocide, triggering a global “wave of antisemitism” — even against Jewish people with no connection to Isreal.
It’s yet another sign that tech giants are retreating from the moderation of disinformation and hate speech. Remember when Facebook owner Meta used to pretend it cared about content moderation?
Seemingly emboldened by self-anointed “free-speech absolutist” Elon Musk — who has made plenty of deeply troubling, racist remarks himself while disseminating propaganda — companies are happily pursuing their capitalist agendas by enabling the spread of misinformation online.
And now that Musk’s long-lost father figure and president-elect Donald Trump is returning to the White House, the situation could soon look a lot worse.
More on propaganda: Gullible Elon Musk Got Fooled Into Sharing Putin-Backed Propaganda Meme
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