after the WJC protest
The leading US internet retailer Amazon.com has withdrawn T-shirts for children and women emblazoned with ‘I love Hitler’ from its website following a protest by the World Jewish Congress.
The WJC’s secretary-general Michael Schneider had said in a statement: “We are shocked and disgusted that Amazon.com is seemingly unwilling to stop the sale of such items, in spite of protests earlier this year. Not only is the slogan in bad taste, but to target children with clothes emblazoned with pro-Nazi slogans is particularly despicable. Companies have a responsibility. To make money with items glorifying the Nazis sets a very bad example. A lack of sensibility will ultimately do them serious damage as customers will rightly go and shop elsewhere.”
Schneider called on the retailer to avoid any repetition of this or similar cases in the future. He added that the dramatic rise in hate speech via the internet could only be contained if all stakeholders in society, including businesses, took their responsibilities seriously. “Let’s hope Amazon heeds the call this time,” he said. In January 2008, following a report by the Czech weekly ‘Tyden’, Amazon.com had already removed similar T-shirts, praising the Nazi leaders and war criminals Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler, from its site.
Schneider called on all internet operators to curb the dissemination of anti-Semitic material on the Web. “When you see how much neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic material comes up through search engines such Google or on video platforms such as Youtube, you are shocked,” Schneider said. However, he expressed hope that companies would enter into dialogue on this important issue before things got worse.
