CafePress, the online retailer that sells custom made products, removed the “I Love Jews But Hate Israel” T-shirt from its site after the Simon Wiesenthal Center sent a letter to the company imploring them to remove the offensive content.
The online retailer sent an e-mail toArutz 7, following an article published on April 29, explaining companypolicy and their decision to remove the design.
The e-mail stated, “In reference to the ‘I Love Jews But Hate Israel’ designs referred to in this particular story, last week an individual inquired about this content and demanded its removal. At that time the product images in question were immediately reviewed. Upon review, we determined to remove the designs from our site.”
While the company did remove the “I Love Jews But Hate Israel” T-shirt from its site, a wide variety of Hamas merchandise, as well as other products asserting, among other things, that “Israel Kills,” is still available online.
The company explained that it is an automated service that allows users to upload merchandise designs into the CafePress marketplace. Therefore, the “range of user-designed products varies widely in topic, taste and political opinion.”
“CafePress’ independent design community spans the globe, with users representing a multicultural and multinational ideals and sentiments. As such, users may uploaddesigns that some find distasteful or offensive, but are nevertheless consistent with our policies for expressions and content on our website. At times, user-uploadeddesigns may be unacceptable based on our content usage policy or other considerations and those images may be removed,” the e-mail noted.
Customers are encouraged to contact CafePress if they see offensive or hateful content that violates company policy.
The e-mail continued to note that, “the very nature of determining what designs should and should not be removed from the website is often seen as political statement, which we do not believe reflects our role as a platform for self-expression. CafePress neither condones the expressions found in our users’ designs nor condemns its users’ right to express them within the confines of our policies.”
“We regret any offense or concern caused by the images in question,” the companyadded.
Arutz 7 sent an e-mail to the company requesting that it remove the Hamas and “Israel Kills” paraphernalia.
