Earlier today, we told you about how eBay appeared to be preventing users from listing any of the six “problematic” Dr. Seuss books for auction.
WOWWWW pic.twitter.com/BaRQSqsABJ
— Cʜɪᴢᴀᴅ ⚜️? (@AUChizad) March 4, 2021
Tweeter @neontaster devoted quite a bit of time and energy to trying to figure out exactly what was going on.
Anyway, I seem to be the only one so far who actually checked this properly, and this is my final conclusion: It's likely postings that include the specific images that caused the controversy to begin with, even if they are presented to show the item's condition/completeness.
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) March 4, 2021
Well, now at last we know for certain what eBay’s doing:
eBay has told us that it will be removing all listings of the six Dr. Seuss books Seuss Enterprises has decided to stop publishing. In an email, the cited their policy against "hate and discrimination." @dcexaminer https://t.co/AldoYI6ySa
— Haley Victory Smith (@Haley_Victory) March 4, 2021
More from the Washington Examiner:
A spokeswoman for the website told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that it would no longer be allowing sellers to list six books that have been deemed by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the company that preserves Theodor Seuss “Ted” Geisel’s legacy, as containing racially insensitive imagery.
“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 Corporate Communications Specialist Parmita Choudhury said. “We’re currently sweeping our marketplace to remove these items. It can take some time to review all existing listings and provide education to impacted users. We’re also monitoring the newly published list to be reviewed.”
Choudhury also directed the Washington Examiner to refer to the company’s offensive material policy.
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So they’re pulling a Twitter, basically.
There goes Ebay, deciding to be moral arbiters again, completely ignorant of the fact that books with outdated cultural depictions are still considered historical pieces. https://t.co/Gk92SvTK55
— Alex "The Hatman" Baldwin (@TheHat2) March 4, 2021
Totally not an awful precedent that will be abused more and more in the future. It was one thing for the estate to stop publication. It’s another for 3rd parties to start enforcing bans on someone selling their own property. https://t.co/MNs8raDOPD
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) March 4, 2021
The people who create these controversies aren't the those who object but those who insist on this censorship.
And the more they flood our discourse with this kind of cultural purging, the less focus there is on who wields real power – that's why corporations love this stuff: https://t.co/VuWEnPNfRx
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 4, 2021
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