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After previously pulling bathroom mats featuring Islamic text and children’s T-shirts with sexualized messages, Amazon is once again removing offensive items from sale.
The online retailer has most recently come under fire for offering several Auschwitz-themed gifts that featured images of the Nazi death camp plastered across such items as Christmas ornaments or bottle openers.
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Officials at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum and memorial became aware of the items on Sunday, urging Amazon to remove the “disturbing and disrespectful” wares from the pages of the seller.
“Selling ’Christmas ornaments’ with images of Auschwitz does not seem appropriate,” the museum tweeted on Sunday, along with a link to the third-party seller who was offering the items. “Auschwitz on a bottle opener is rather disturbing and disrespectful. We ask @amazon to remove the items of those suppliers.”
Thousands of Twitter users commented on the odd offerings as well, with some asking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to answer for the incident, and others questioning why the items with images of Auschwitz — where an estimated 1.1 million Jews were murdered — were made in the first place.
Amazon has since confirmed that the offending items were removed from sale. However, as noted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and tweeted by the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum and memorial, at least one was still available after the online giant initially issued its statement.
“All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action, including potential removal of their account,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement shared with Fox News. “The products in question have been removed.”
“All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action, including potential removal of their account,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement shared with Fox News. “The products in question have been removed.” (iStock)
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As Wired notes, however, Sunday’s incident may point to a bigger problem between Amazon and its third-party sellers.
James Thomson, a former Amazon employee who spoke with the outlet, said that products are not always reviewed by humans, but rather with an automated process that filters out products based on the recognition of offensive words or descriptions.
Amazon also has a policy against offering “offensive and controversial” materials, which “does not allow products that promote, incite or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views.”
“We'll also remove listings that graphically portray violence or victims of violence,” the policy notes.
The rule may not always be effective, however. Amazon recently removed a children’s shirt with the words “Daddy’s Little Slut” across the front.
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Aside from Amazon, online retailer Wish, too, was found to be selling some of the same Auschwitz-themed items on its site, for which it later apologized.
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Those items, too, were being removed as of Monday.