Etsy faces user boycotts on its “Aligator Alcatraz” branded products

Florida GOP Not the only profits that benefit from a detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” sale merchandise. A subset of Etsy’s buyers and sellers began boycotting the online market this month on its website about its decision to allow “Wannial Catraz” brand products.

Today, products of this kind, including t-shirts, hats, mugs, stickers, patches and other items, can be found across e-commerce platforms beyond Etsy, ranging from large retailers like Amazon to online marketplaces like eBay.

But ETSY users are particularly troubled by the company’s decision to allow products to celebrate Florida’s controversial ice detention centers, where detainees are being held in cages and exposed to horrifying circumstances. AP, Newsweek, Washington Post, CBS, NYT, Tampa Bay Timesand others.

User claims Etsy is published Discrimination and hateful content policieslists “immigration status” as a protected class. This means that both behavior and product cannot contain or display discriminatory behaviors against the protected classes listed. Boycotters believes Etsy is in violation of its policy. This is because the company notes that prohibited actions include not only hate speeches, but also content that “directly or indirectly contains violent or degraded commentary on the above protected classes.”

Etsy boycotts are loosely organized on social media platforms like Meta thread and reddit So far, there have been thousands of posts and comments. for example, One thread post Boycott has over 26,500 likes! Please see that you received it Reddit Post said, “What are you thinking about on Etsy?!” There are 69,000 upvotes.

When looking for termsBoycottEtsyThe thread has a long flow of posts discussing boycotts. Many have hundreds of replies. Some Etsy sellers are worried that online businesses will suffer as a result, even though they don’t sell this type of product.

Reddit’s Etsy community and elsewhere boycotts sellers They threaten to close the storeand buyers say they are closure their account. There are also references to boycotts across other social media sites x, Tiktok, Facebookand others.

So far, this effort has only been slowly organized, so it is difficult to communicate how many people are participating. App Intelligence Provider According to data from App Figures, Etsy’s iOS app in the US has not yet slipped into the ranks. This is found in the top 20 apps in the shopping category throughout the month.

Etsy isn’t just profiting from this type of product, as some sellers and buyers have pointed out. Many major sales platforms do not currently ban “Wannial Catraz” branded products. Among those who TechCrunch reached out, only Amazon was willing to defend the choice to host this product, so he pointed out us that. Controversial Product and Content Policy. The company also said that “Alligator Alcatraz” products are compliant with the Guidelines.

Etsy did not respond to multiple requests for comments. eBay responded to an email request but did not share any comments. Shopify didn’t respond, nor did smaller platforms like Redbubble and Teepublic. (Walmart and Target were not known to currently host this type of product.)

Etsy also introduced several sellers with products under the brand “Aligator Auschwitz.” It is also on the list of products that are being asked to discontinue (as seen in the screenshot below).

E-commerce platforms have previously weathered such a storm, and are known to host products that promote both the right and left wing views without taking a political stance.

But in more extreme cases, businesses are surrendering to customer backlash. for example, Early this yearShopify hosted a storefront run by Kanye, who sold Swastika T-shirts, and defeated it, but continued to host other stores featuring anti-Semitic content. The past few years. Amazon has faced backlash earlier Through the decision to host right-wing militia merchandise and products celebrating the Qanon plot, and I pulled it Those product under.