Amazon.com Inc said it was removing certain images after messages using extremely strong racist abuse appeared on some listings on its UK website when users searched for Apple’s AirPods and other similar products.
The message sparked outrage on Twitter, with the topic “AirPods” trending in the United Kingdom.
“We are removing the images in question and have taken action on the bad actor,” an Amazon spokeswoman told Reuters on Sunday. She did not elaborate more on the “bad actor”.
Screenshots and video grabs of the messages were trending on Twitter, with users sharing the images.
The listings with the abusive messages were no longer visible on the Amazon UK website and it was not clear how long they were there for.
In April, several of Amazon’s foreign websites, including the UK domain, were added to the U.S. trade regulator’s “notorious markets” report on marketplaces known for counterfeiting and piracy concerns.
Amazon strongly disagreed with the report at that time, describing it as a “purely political act.”
As Los Angeles and other American cities go into curfew and fires burn tonight over protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of now arrested ex-Minneapolis cop, Hulu, Amazon’s Prime Video and Starz have added their voice to Netflix in support of Black Lives Matter.
In an Instagram post that went up just before 9 PM PT, an hour into LA’s police enforced lockdown, the Jeff Bezos-founded streamer and Amazon Studios spoke directly to its almost 1 million followers, plus the more than 1.6 million on Twitter and those beyond:
Earlier in the evening, Hulu and Starz also voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
We support Black lives. Today, and every day. You are seen. You are heard. And we are with you.
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Earlier Saturday, Netflix put out their own statement on social media (see below) with the message of “To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter.”
In an economically reeling nation barely coming out of two months of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in most states, the LAPD and many other metropolitan police forces are arresting people who are out on the streets tonight. The results will be visible to all tomorrow morning as state police and the National Guard move into place in many regions.
Netflix on Saturday afternoon posted a statement on the company’s official Twitter account amid escalating nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd while restrained by a Minneapolis police officer.
“To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter,” the statement read. “We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators, and talent to speak up.”
Also on Saturday, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar sent a company memo that echoed the same sentiment. In it, he vowed to provide “validation to the voices of our Black team members. Your voices matter, your messages matter.” He also stressed the need to “increase our collective empathy for the Black community. In order to do so, I am going to lean into the foundation and very reason for being of this great company, which is the story. Ours is a company that tells stories. And stories, told well, have the power to move people in lasting ways.”
To be silent is to be complicit.
Black lives matter.
We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up.
149K people are talking about this