Amazon Under Fire Over Auschwitz 'Christmas Ornaments'

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Sun Dec 1, 2019, 04:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: DW/Deutsche Welle

The Auschwitz Memorial has criticized a shop on Amazon for selling Christmas ornaments with images of the Nazi concentration camp. The memorial urged the online store to remove the "disrespectful" items.

A shop on Amazon has come under fire for selling Christmas tree ornaments and other products featuring pictures of the Auschwitz concentration camp. In a post on Twitter, the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial museum flagged at least four items being sold on Amazon with pictures of the camp on them — including ornaments in the shape of a bell and a six-pointed star, as well as bottle openers.

"Auschwitz on a bottle opener is rather disturbing and disrespectful," the museum wrote Sunday. It urged the online retail giant to remove the items. The shop describes the items as "travel souvenirs," and sells them alongside other ornaments and items decorated with images of cities and monuments from around the world.

Hundreds of Twitter users have voiced outrage over the products, with some also including screenshots of other heart-shaped ornaments and keychains with pictures of the Nazi German death camp currently being sold on Amazon. Many said they had raised the issue with Amazon customer support. DW has also reached out to Amazon for comment and will update if they respond...


Read more: https://www.dw.com/en/amazon-under-fire-over-auschwitz-christmas-ornaments/a-51491204

---

- A Christmas ornament featuring Auschwitz is for sale on Amazon.

More, Times of Israel, https://www.timesofisrael.com/auschwitz-christmas-ornaments-up-for-sale-on-amazon/

[dewsgirl]

1. FFS😔

[dhol82]

2. WTF!

[sakabatou]

16. My reaction too

[FirstLight]

3. *super cringe*

Oh, that's horrible...why?

All i can think of is some fucking Neo-Nazis buying them up ...ew

[jpak]

4. Fucking vile

[Evolve Dammit]

17. "Fucking vile" is right.

[TeamPooka]

5. A retailer's shop on Amazon isn't "Amazon." Misleading headline

[appalachiablue]

7. Same headlines all over the world. It's Amazon, it's indefensible.

https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+sells+auschwitz+christmas+ornaments&sitesearch=#spf=1575232350488

[TeamPooka]

18. More accurate headline: Aushwitz Christmas Ornaments Sold through Amazon cause controversy

[customerserviceguy]

44. Doesn't Amazon

have a choice about what is sold through their website? Is there no review process, even by a single person with a high school education?

[TeamPooka]

61. they do some but they count on their customers policing for things like this

hence the term "community standards"
They do have a huge list of unauthorized items though that their retailers can't sell.
But retailers cheat in listings, headings, and descriptions on Amazon, eBay etc.
It's a process

[TwilightZone]

10. Agreed.

The headline doesn't even match the article's text, which makes it clear that it's an individual seller.

[erronis]

12. Just like FB, eBay, Twitter, etc. The medium needs to be held accountable for what it carries.

They are in business making profits off of everything they can.

They could carry posts promoting assassinating the current peeResident or blowing up the UN and they would not be held accountable.

What if FB had a few posts that said Zuck should be removed (however)? I bet these posts would be censored.

[appalachiablue]

45. Yes indeed.

[paleotn]

6. Nothing surprises me anymore.

This is what we're dealing with, people.

[PSPS]

8. This is what happens when "algorithms" replace humans screening third-party sellers

or screening facebook accounts or screening youtube posts and comments, etc.

[appalachiablue]

46. For sure

[TwilightZone]

9. It's not Amazon, it's an individual seller.

The source's headline is intentionally misleading and doesn't even match their own text.

We really shouldn't perpetuate a false narrative, regardless of the source or our preconceived notions.

[Evolve Dammit]

19. At what point does the ultimate merchant (Amazon) have some basic responsibility? Facebook?

[Quackers]

25. Ultimately, they are responsible. That's why Amazon removed them after being alerted.

People will always try to slip things through and troll. Even here at DU they do it. Thankfully, MIRT works to keep such exposure to a minimum.

[Evolve Dammit]

42. I'm sorry but who is MIRT? Also saw Google just posted map of Crimea being part of Russia. WTF??

[Quackers]

49. Malicious Intruder Removal Team

They’re like the Navy Seals of DU. They work in the background monitoring post, new users, etc, and will remove anyone that is obviously trolling or that the registration bot missed. They are regular members just like you. They could even be in this very thread.

[Evolve Dammit]

64. I like it! Thanks for the reply. Do they get Trident pins? (or reasonable facsimile thereof)?

[christx30]

62. They can't see 100% of what goes on their site

From the thousands of sellers. I’d say if, once it’s pointed out about this, their response isn’t “holy crap! That’s out of here like YESTERDAY!”, and try to defend it being there, then hold them accountable. But I say give them a chance to decide which horse they want to back, the seller, or human decency.

[Sanity Claws]

23. If I saw that at Macy's, I would blame Macy's.

Why shouldn't I blame Amazon? This shit would not have received the wide distribution that it did without Amazon.

[GanjaGrower]

29. Macy's is a store, Amazon is a marketplace

There’s a difference. It is not humanly possible to vet every product sold by every seller on Amazon.

Algorithms and machine learning work to some degree as filters, but can’t possibly be discerning enough to catch everything. In this case Amazon worked quickly to ban the seller as soon as they were made aware of the offensive products, don’t see how you can blame anybody but the seller in this situation.

[Sanity Claws]

40. A store is a marketplace.

I really don't understand why you excuse Amazon.

It is making money by allowing these entities to use its platform. It can do whatever is necessary to police its platform. No excuses.

[GanjaGrower]

41. I wouldn't say I'm excusing Amazon

Just pointing out the reality of the situation.

And I have to disagree with your statement that a store is a marketplace. A marketplace is a location/service that hosts multiple stores for a fee.

In my opinion Amazon did police its platform by banning the seller. There just really isn't a whole lot else they can do. There are 2 million sellers on Amazon, and somewhere around 350 million products. That number is growing by a rough average of one million per month. It is not humanly possible to preemptively vet every single new item that a seller makes available. That's why they rely on users like you and me to help them find things like this and bring it to their attention.

They also use screening programs, but they just aren't discerning enough to catch everything. Making these programs more "tough" risks blocking innocent new products that could be misconstrued as being offensive.

These aren't excuses, just the reality of the situation.

[jberryhill]

51. And so it has

They acted on the complaint. In fact, the mechanism for people to report issues like this is also part of the platform.

[Loki Liesmith]

60. So have you ever tried vetting users and products on that scale?

How did you do it?

[LanternWaste]

66. Credit companies do so as a matter of course.

Credit companies do so with scale, product and client as a matter of course.

Ask them how they do it.

[metalbot]

65. A flea market would be a better analogy

Macy's clearly has control over what is bought and sold - they have procurement teams who specialize in this, and they have marketing teams who very carefully and specifically place products for sale.

Amazon's third party sellers are more similar to a flea market that charges people $100 to set up a table for the weekend. The flea market may have assorted policies (don't sell guns, drugs, or pornography), but that doesn't mean you'd expect the company running the flea market to inspect every box belonging to every vendor to ensure that nothing is in violation. When someone reports to you "hey, those guys are giving away a shot of whiskey for every Christmas ornament you buy", it's reasonable that the flea market would shut that vendor down, much like Amazon did here.

[Polybius]

58. Not the same thing though

Picture Amazon as the mall. Now picture Spencer selling Nazi ornaments. Once the mall finds out, they will put a stop to it, as Amazon did. But they are too big to check every single item for sale. That's why they rely on me and you, the people, to report improper items.

[Retrograde]

67. It's Amazon's business model

They allow pretty much anyone to set up a store with no human oversight, and trust that their algorithms will catch any shady merchandise - or that any questionable sellers or items will get enough bad publicity that they'll be forced to remove it. Meanwhile, Amazon collects its cut of every transaction.

[keithbvadu2]

11. "Never Forget." - Some deny the holocaust... Some openly brag about it.

Some deny the holocaust... Some openly brag about it.

KKK Conservative boasting:

“We killed six million Jews the last time,” he answered. “Eleven million is nothing.”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article167939222.html

[erronis]

15. Schlock value. These fake patriots want only to get their names on headlines.

Unfortunately, one way they do this is to injure and kill people.

Remember Timothy McVeigh and his mission to get a white uprising? There are still perverts like him infesting the country/world.

[northoftheborder]

13. Stomach turning, head-ache inducing, horrible.

[Hekate]

14. People who do this kind of thing are absolutely vile. They do it with evil intent.

Amazon needs customers to be its watchdogs, along with watchdog groups. I'm glad the vendor was found out. There should be harsh penalties for sellers who pull this shit, because they know what they are oing.

[Evolve Dammit]

20. Amazon, Facebook and others need to step up and prohibit propoganda and hate speech/ products.

[appalachiablue]

47. Defintely, this ugly and inexcusable

[H2O Man]

22. +1

[sheshe2]

36. +1

[jberryhill]

54. A key line in the article:

“ and sells them alongside other ornaments and items decorated with images of cities and monuments from around the world. ”

If I had to guess, I would guess that “these people” run an imprinting and decal shop in an Asian country, and indiscrinately run off trinkets from what they know are substantial visitor destinations, and really have not much of an idea of the cultural and religious significance of the site.

If they were just running off souvenir trinkets of various tourist attractions - around which there is significant unease as applied to such sites - they may simply be entirely culturally ignorant, as we are to things held sacred in cultures we do not understand.

The class of “inappropriate items inadvertently produced in Asia for sale in the west” is a vast and sometimes disturbing category of goods.

The Yad Vashem gift shop is itself kind of a head scratcher....

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-shoah-souvenirs-should-the-yad-vashem-holocaust-museum-have-a-gift-store-1.6999353

Shoah Souvenirs: Should the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Have a Gift Store?

[area51]

21. WTAF?

[LuckyLib]

24. Made in China by some chance?

[murielm99]

26. Holeeee shit!

I know this is only one shop, but Amazon should refuse things like this. They should be able to use discretion about what is sold there.

[jberryhill]

28. They do

It’s not as if Amazon checks each item placed for sale by a vendor - or even has the staff it would require to do something like that.

Amazon was alerted to it and took it down.

[Quackers]

32. I also ran a price history check on that item.

It wasn’t even up long enough to generate a profile.

[TexasBushwhacker]

27. They've been taken down n/t

[Doreen]

30. OK, I see that you can get it through Amazon

but what is the name of the company/shop/people who are selling it.

If Amazon has the ability and/or right to not allow that on its site and they still allow it then they are at fault also.
It would be nice to know who is selling those so if they are selling acceptable things we do not buy them not knowing we are also supporting them.

[PatrickforO]

31. No. Just NO. n/t

[gopiscrap]

33. Fucking insensitive

[orleans]

34. i can hardly believe this

i feel like i could puke

[cate94]

35. WTF?

Who came up with this lunacy?

[wryter2000]

37. Good Lord in heaven

Who on Earth thinks that image belongs on an ornament of any kind? Sick!

[Quackers]

53. Someone willing to do anything to make a buck.

People suck.

[BigMin28]

38. It's obscene

Amazon bears responsibility for what they allow to be sold on their site.

[Takket]

57. They do. That's why they took it down.

[YOHABLO]

39. When reading these posts, I think people have gone insane.

Not just a small minority, but a very large minority. Surely people can't be that ignorant? Is this the country that I'm living in? I guess so. Scary.

[appalachiablue]

48. +1

[Wuddles440]

43. Good God!

Just when you think you've heard or seen every type of despicable behavior imaginable. Beyond sickening!

[icymist]

50. I'm livid!

To Hell with Amazon!

[Quackers]

52. It wasn't Amazon, it was an individual seller posting to Amazon marketplace.

The item wasn’t even up long enough to generate a report on price tracking websites. Amazon removed it.

[Quackers]

56. Self-delete. nt

[Takket]

59. What is Amazon Marketplace

Just as an FYI to people......... the Amazon Marketplace is a way for third party sellers to be able to use amazon's significant platform and search engine to sell things. Amazon sets out guidelines for what is and is not allowed in the marketplace. If Amazon finds you are violating their rules, they remove your item and if egregious enough they remove the seller. Which is exactly what happened here.

The marketplace has, according to this site, about 3 million active sellers

https://www.marketplacepulse.com/amazon/number-of-sellers

So there are literally tens of millions of items for sale on the marketplace. There is no screening every single items and so long as offensive/illegal items are removed once reported, no harm is done.

[Kablooie]

63. It is a whole line of ugly ornaments with Polish landmarks printed on them.

And all the concentration camp ones have been removed.