Ebay to block Dr. Seuss (but you can still buy Mein Kampf)
Inconsistencies.
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Ebay has created a mess for itself.
The auction website is going to prevent the resale of the six Dr. Seuss books discontinued this week by the late author’s publisher.
“At eBay, we have a strict policy against hate and discrimination to ensure our platform remains a safe, trusted and inclusive environment for our global community of buyers and sellers," spokeswoman Parmita Choudhury told the Washington Examiner’s Haley Victory Smith.
Ebay is going to have a hell of a time defending its decision to ban the children's books while allowing literally thousands of other offensive items to appear on its website.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises LP announced Tuesday that it is discontinuing six books by the company's namesake: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer. The group explained at the time of its announcement that the aforementioned books are being taken out of circulation because they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”
Though there are still hundreds of listings for the books available on eBay, the current number is far lower than what it was a mere 24 hours ago.
A company spokeswoman told the Washington Examiner that it will take a while to review all the seller listings. In the meantime, she said, eBay is “monitoring newly published listings."
"We're currently sweeping our marketplace to remove these items,” said Choudhury. “It can take some time to review all existing listings and provide education to impacted users. We're also monitoring the newly published list to be reviewed."
This is an ill-advised move by eBay, one that is far worse than the initial decision to discontinue the books.
For starters, there is a big difference between a private company deciding it no longer wants to produce a certain product and a private company selectively enforcing an “offensive material policy” to bar individuals from buying and selling certain legal materials. The former is the right of a private business. The latter is the intrusion by a corporation into lawful transactions between consumers.
And make no mistake, eBay is very much selectively enforcing its “offensive material policy.”
You will no longer be able to buy any of the discontinued Dr. Seuss books on eBay, but you can still buy the 1961 romantic comedy Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which is especially amusing given the specific allegations of offense leveled against the late children's author. If eBay is going to block the books because they “portray people,” particularly Asians, “in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” then what is its plan for the movie that features Mickey Rooney playing the role of a bumbling, bucktoothed Japanese landlord?
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street will no longer be available for resale on eBay, but you can still buy Birth of a Nation. You can still buy David Duke’s Jewish Supremacism. Hell, you can still buy Mein Kampf.
How far do we want to take this?
If "offense" is the guiding principle regarding eBay’s Seuss policy, then what are we to make of the availability of the Satanic Bible on the same platform? You will no longer be able to sell or buy If I Ran the Zoo, but you can still purchase vintage Third Reich memorabilia. In fact, you can still buy any number of items bearing the hated Nazi swastika.
Will eBay move to make these items unavailable for resale as well? It probably won’t. And it shouldn’t, because it's not the company's business to censor products on the behalf of its users, especially when there is no question as to the legality of buying and selling said products (blocking the Seuss books is not the same thing as, say, pulling down listings for illegal substances or child pornography).
Yet, for whatever reason, eBay has decided it must intervene now to protect customers from Dr. Seuss, even as far more racist and offensive products are still available for purchase.
How eBay plans to explain barring the one but not the other is anyone’s guess. My best guess is that it won't because it can’t.