Holocaust Denial Tests Tech Giant Shopify’s Free Speech Ethos

Shopify Inc., Canada’s biggest tech company, is drawing criticism for hosting an online store full of antisemitic merchandise, in a test of what the e-commerce platform is willing to accept under a new lighter-touch rulebook.

Author of the article:

Bloomberg News

Thomas Seal

Published Nov 18, 2024  •  2 minute read

Shopify headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. Shopify Inc. was among the first technology giants to slash its workforce during last year's market rout. Now, some investors say its stock is poised to outperform peers over the course of 2023 as those job cuts translate into lower costs, narrower losses and better cash flow. Photo by David Kawai /Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — Shopify Inc., Canada’s biggest tech company, is drawing criticism for hosting an online store full of antisemitic merchandise, in a test of what the e-commerce platform is willing to accept under a new lighter-touch rulebook.

The store sells apparel and accessories with designs that depict the Holocaust as “make believe,” feature antisemitic propaganda from the Second World War and parody the likeness of Anne Frank.

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It’s being marketed via an anti-Jewish account on Elon Musk’s social media network X called TheOfficial1984 with more than 200,000 followers. Both the X account and store tout a Telegram account that shared content celebrating Adolf Hitler.

On Nov. 13, the Anti-Defamation League newsletter focused on the X account and its promotion of “antisemitic” merchandise, while on Nov. 16 the widely followed account Stop Antisemitism joined other social media users alerting Shopify to the account.

Shopify representatives did not respond to five requests for comment, and the store operator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shopify’s Acceptable Use Policy says users can’t do anything illegal where they conduct business, or promote or threaten violence. Previous versions of its policy banned “hateful content,” according to archives available on the Wayback Machine, but the clause appears to have been removed in July 2024, based on cached versions of the page reviewed by Bloomberg.

Whether the store breaches the newly permissive policy is unclear. However, in 2022, Canada outlawed denying or downplaying the Nazis’ murder of Jews in the Holocaust. Some of the merchandise in question “would absolutely consist of Holocaust distortion and denial,” said Montreal Holocaust Museum spokeswoman Sarah Fogg.

Shopify’s Chief Executive Officer Tobi Lutke wrote a blog post in 2017 “in support of free speech” that explained the company’s position, after it resisted pressure to remove an online store operated by right-wing news site Breitbart.

However, the Ottawa-based e-commerce giant — valued at almost $140 billion — has banned stores in the past on the grounds of promoting violence. One such store was operated by the Trump Organization and was removed after the President-elect supported protesters who stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

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