Amazon removes some Nazi-related items after criticism for ‘monetized hate’

Amazon has been criticized for continuing to sell anti-Semitic items on its site despite the e-retail giant removing several Nazi-related items.

The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center on Thursday lashed out at Amazon for “allowing the marketing and sale of Nazi and neo-Nazi paraphernalia on its website.”

The organization said it sent a letter to Amazon demanding the removal of several products.

According to the Wiesenthal Center, removing the listings “will end the monetization of hateful products.”

The Jewish organization provided screenshots of several items, including a swastika pendant attached to a necklace; patches with images of “crossbones of a pirate skull”; metal brooch-pin with the image of a skull; and several other items that are said to contain neo-Nazi overtones.

“Amazon needs to immediately remove and update its site to stop recommending all the trappings of Nazis, neo-Nazis and white supremacists,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action at the Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement.

Cooper cited a letter his organization sent to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos last year that prompted the Seattle-based e-commerce retailer to remove more than 20 Nazi propaganda films that were for sale on Amazon’s website or were available for streaming. on its Prime Video service.

The rabbi demanded that Amazon put in place a system to quickly remove such items in the future.

“It’s simply not acceptable for the largest economic giant to play Wack-a-Mole games instead of fixing things,” Cooper said.

“We don’t need to know what your algorithm is. What I’m interested in knowing is whether Amazon can easily fix this without causing significant damage to their bottom line.”

Cooper added, “And the fact that they didn’t do it themselves is bad enough.”

Several articles have been removed from the site. Tech news site Gizmodo was the first to report the removal.

When The Post contacted an Amazon spokesman, he cited the company’s policy on “potentially offensive products.”

“Our offensive product policy prohibits the sale of products that promote, incite or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance, or promote organizations with such views, as well as listings that graphically depict violence or victims of violence,” reads in the document. company writes.

“To enforce our policies, we have proactive mechanisms in place to detect offensive listings before a customer sees them,” Amazon says.

“Our technology constantly scans all items for sale for text and images that we have determined violate our policies and removes them immediately.”

“The realm of potentially offensive products is nuanced and varied, and we review thousands of products every day against our policies to ensure they comply.”

Last year, Amazon refused to ban a controversial anti-Semitic film promoted online by Brooklyn Nets superstar Kyrie Irving.

From Jews to Blacks: Awaken Black America has been available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video since Friday.

The film, based on the 2015 book of the same name, promotes anti-Semitic clichés and false claims, including the claim that Israel’s black Jewish community is the true descendants of biblical Israelites.

The film also alleges a global Jewish conspiracy to oppress blacks and that Jews are partly to blame for the African slave trade.

Irving, the mercurial star of the Nets, took to Twitter and posted a link to the movie. After news broke about the film’s antisemitic content, Nets owner Joe Tsai released a statement condemning Irving for the tweet.

When Irving refused to retract the film and its anti-Semitic statements, he was suspended several games by the Nets, who came under pressure from the Anti-Defamation League and other groups to demand disciplinary action.

Irwin eventually apologized and was reinstated by the team.