Amazon received a hell lot of backlash from netizens last week. This is because it showed racist images on some of the product listings on their website. When customers searched for products like the AirPods and other similar headphones, the listings, instead of showing images of the products, showed images with racial slurs. Amazon has removed the questionable listings from its US and UK websites. However, consumers took to Twitter to hate on the company for allowing such activities on its platform.
The online commerce giant had to act almost immediately after netizens started sharing screenshots (below) of Amazon product listings with images containing the “N-word”. Although listings of no major vendors showed such images, product listings of most new sellers showed the racist images.
The issue grew larger and larger amidst the ongoing political unrest in the US. It even made the term “AirPods” trending on Twitter in the UK.
Now, to sell a product on Amazon’s platform, third-party sellers need to strictly follow the guidelines set by the company. If they fail to follow the said guidelines, Amazon removes their account from the site.
“Our store maintains content guidelines which third party sellers are required to follow,” said an Amazon spokeswoman.
So, after the online criticisms, Amazon took down the images as fast they could. The Amazon spokeswoman said, “As soon as this issue was raised, we investigated, removed the images in question, and took action against the bad actor,”.
A couple of years earlier, Amazon was allowing the sale of Nazi-themed products on its website. Now, this came amidst the outrageous protests by citizens involving racism. It looks like, Bezos needs to take a second look at its policies and guidelines involving third-party sellers.
