Shopify faces backlash for hosting store selling antisemitic merchandise

Shopify Inc., an Ottawa-based e-commerce giant, is facing mounting criticism for hosting an online store that promotes antisemitic merchandise, including Holocaust-denial content. Its updated content policy is sparking debate.

Last November, the widely followed account Stop Antisemitism joined other social-media users in alerting Shopify to an account called TheOfficial1984 on Elon Musk’s social-media network X, according to reports in The Financial Post news site and Infobae news site.

The account, which has more than 200,000 followers, is marketing a Shopify-hosted online store that sells apparel and accessories with designs that depict the Holocaust as “make-believe.” The merchandise features antisemitic propaganda from World War II and parodies the likeness of Anne Frank.

The online store’s promotion via TheOfficial1984 has elicited much criticism of Shopify Inc., Canada’s biggest tech company. It is challenging what the e-commerce platform is willing to accept under its new and more flexible regulations.

Last November, the Anti-Defamation League newsletter focused on TheOfficial1984 and its promotion of “antisemitic” merchandise. Both the X account and the Shopify store had promoted a Telegram account that shared content celebrating Adolf Hitler.

The Jerusalem Post tried to access the site but discovered that Israeli IP addresses are banned from it. It redirects the homepage to another page with the following message: “No Jews allowed.”

Policy banned 'hateful content'

Shopify’s Acceptable Use Policy states that users cannot do anything illegal when conducting business or promoting or threatening violence, according to The Financial Post and Infobae. Previous versions of Shopify’s policy had banned “hateful content,” according to archives available on the Wayback Machine.

The clause banning “hateful content” appears to have been removed this past July based on cached versions of the page reviewed by Bloomberg. Whether the online store infringes Shopify’s newly permissive policy is unclear.

In 2022, Canada outlawed denying or downplaying the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust. Some of the merchandise in question “would consist of Holocaust distortion and denial,” Montreal Holocaust Museum spokesperson Sarah Fogg said.

Shopify representatives did not respond to five requests for comment regarding the situation, according to the reports. The operator of the online store also did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Shopify Inc., which is valued at nearly $140 billion, has banned stores for promoting violence. One of those stores was operated by the Trump Organization and was removed after the president-elect supported the protesters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In 2017, Shopify resisted pressure to remove an online store operated by right-wing news site Breitbart. Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke wrote a blog post in 2017 “in support of freedom of expression,” explaining the company’s position.

The current situation raises questions about the company’s commitment to regulating content on its platform. Critics argue that such content should not be allowed under Shopify’s policies.