Amazon says it removed several items of racist propaganda from its store in response to questions from a Democratic lawmaker — though white supremacist literature and other propaganda items remain widely available on the site.
After criticism from advocacy groups and Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison about the availability of Nazi-themed toys and baby onesies with pictures of burning crosses on Amazon's website, the company said this week that it had removed several items and banned sellers who had violated its policies.
Amazon's U.S. seller policies ban "items that Amazon deems offensive," which include products "that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views."
But a report last month by the advocacy groups the Partnership for Working Families and the Action Center on Race & the Economy said Amazon was "facilitat[ing] the spread of hate ideologies, including white supremacy, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and homophobia." The groups said the "breadth of Amazon's business combined with its weak and inadequately enforced policies" was giving hate groups the opportunity to profit.
The report featured pictures of items for sale as of June 2018, including a baby onesie with a picture of a burning cross, a sticker of a noose, Nazi-themed flags and patches, a swastika pendant and Nazi-themed toys for children. The report also named various publishers and authors with e-books for sale on Amazon who were identified as being affiliated with hate groups, according to the monitoring group the Southern Poverty Law Center.