E-commerce sites have been taking steps to remove products related to hate groups, violent conduct, etc., for a while now.
The Proud Boys first had all of their related merchandise taken down, and Fred Perry even stopped selling a certain shirt they group had adopted as an unofficial uniform. E-commerce sites de-platformed Kyle Rittenhouse’s family from selling “Free Kyle” merchandise, and even Shopify took down the official Trump Campaign and Trump Organization merchandise stores following the Capitol riots last week.
Now, Amazon, which in the past has had a hard time policing the merchandise on its platform, announced it is removing all QAnon merchandise from its marketplace.
The FBI has identified the QAnon movement, a conspiracy-theory laden group that was tied to the mob at the Capitol, as a potential terror threat, but merchandise has been widely available online.
On Monday, Amazon announced that third-party listings for QAnon merchandise would no longer be allowed on its platform, citing its terms of service, which prohibit selling products that “promote, incite, or glorify hate or violence toward any person or group,” according to NBC News.
Obviously, there are so many products on Amazon that it might take some time before all of them can be removed. NBC reported that, on Tuesday, there were still a few lingering QAnon products on the marketplace, but a quick search now only brings up books about the conspiracy group, rather than the plethora of items like hats, shirts and even baby pajamas available before.
Amazon now joins other major online marketplaces like Etsy and eBay, which have already disallowed QAnon merchandise.
“At eBay, we have a strict policy against hate and discrimination to ensure our platform remains a safe, trusted and inclusive environment for our global community of buyers and sellers,” eBay said in a statement to NBC News. “Any merchandise glorying [sic] violence or hate will be removed from our marketplace. This includes QAnon merchandise.”
