ACSOL Action Alert: Please Join Effort to Remove Anti-Registrant Merchandise from Etsy.com
From ACSOL:
Please join ACSOL and others in an effort to persuade Etsy to remove anti-registrant merchandise from its website. The merchandise at issue includes messages on clothing and bumper stickers such as “Shoot Your Local Pedophile” and “Dead Pedophiles Don’t Reoffend.”
“These and other statements on merchandise incite violence and therefore are not protected by the First Amendment,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci.
Messages demanding that Etsy remove its anti-registrant merchandise from its website should be sent by email to [email protected]
It is important to note that the anti-registrant merchandise sold by Etsy is in violation of at least two of Etsy’s policies. First, there is an Etsy policy that bans items that “promote, support, or glorify violence.” Second, there is an Etsy policy that prohibits content on its website that “demeans, targets, or encourages harm against groups, regardless of protected-class status.”
In its email message to Etsy, ACSOL demanded the immediate removal of anti-registrant merchandise from the Etsy website. In addition, ACSOL stated that it would pursue all available legal remedies if that merchandise was not removed.
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OK, so I have contacted quite a few of the sellers of hate and given them a little education on the situation.
Several have responded, one kindly and the rest the usual hateful ignorance. And they all have blocked me from replying any further.
Two stated they have reported me. I was trying to reply and let them know that I don’t care and wanted to let them know that I included my message to them in my report on them, but they’re not allowing me to because they’re cowards and they can’t deal with it.
What I have learned in my 60+ years in this incarnation is that this is what cowards do because they can’t handle the truth.
You don’t have to send a message to the sellers, but do go to as many of the merch listings as possible, and report each and every one of them and copy and paste the two policy violations into the report with your demand that Etsy immediately bans all this hate smut from their platform.
I searched using “Shoot Your Local Pedophile” but didn’t get results. Then searched “Dead Pedophiles Don’t Reoffend” and that’s where the masses of listings appeared.
Everyone needs to report each and every one of them till the message is acknowledged by Etsy!!!
I’m surprised you even got one nice reply. I usually get a week’s worth of empty threats from their compatriots. I’ve documented this multiple times over the years.
Maybe part of the hook taking on Etsy should be that slogan’s ties to right-wing extremism. The Proud Boys might not have originated that slogan but they use it a lot and so they’re synonymous with it.
I have never seen anyone with the shirts but sure have seen plenty of the bumper stickers that say “Kill your local predator”. Not even sure how that is free speech? Threatening to kill someone was the last time I knew was a crime. But since sometimes those on the registry are killed and law enforcement sometimes, especially in small towns, write it up as “Self defense”.
THANK YOU FOR THIS ALERT! I was just about to place a really big order for christmas gifts and thank goodness I got this before I did. I will not support hate in any form and especially not when it directly impacts my family. Ignorance has no limits when it comes to hate. I pity people who are trapped in hate.
Etsy should be sued for selective enforcement of their policies. Karma will get them for sure.
@Will
Their lawyers will probably state it is free speech.
No. They’re violating at least two of Etsy’s own policies.
I’m in the process of deleting my account. I have sold on Etsy, at least one high-dollar item. I have bought quite a few things. But because of their promotion of hate I am deleting my account. It’s the good sellers who will suffer loss of business.
I feel Registered Persons should consider a network of businesses run by Registrants or support our cause, much like how there’s black-owned and women-owned businesses where people can support them. Of course we’d have to figure out how to do it without it being targeted by vigilantes.
Will
I stand by your bid to delete them. What if they sold a shirt that showed an African American person in a noose? I would be offended by that even though I am not black, but I would not tolerate that type of hate towards anyone. Or it could be anyone, Jews, Native Americans, the disabled etc.
The merchants should have never allowed them in the first place. Now that they are already available, the merchants would be afraid of being labeled supporters of sex offenders/offenses if they remove them because sellers would launch a public smear campaign against them in retaliation. Everything is a big McCarthyism bandwagon with this stuff these days. Etsy, Amazon, and bunches of other marketplaces just look the other way out of fear even though they know they are violating their own terms by allowing the merchandise to be sold through them.
It would be funny if a bunch of people bought the items and just returned them over and over so the sellers lose so much money they pull them from their stock.
It is a failure on Etsy to not have caught this before allowing it to be sold on their site. As I understand it, Etsy either gets a percentage of the sale, or the vendor pays Etsy a fee to sell onsite. At the moment, I’d say Etsy is definitely complicit.
“Anti-registrant”?
This merch is not really anti-registrant, is it?
We’ve made so many efforts to educate the public on the diff between registrant and pedophile. They are not the same thing, 95% of the time. Are we now conflating the two?
FAC may share more common ground with these merchants than you might think. Both FAC and these merchants are opposed to adults seeking to exploit children for sexual gratification. Which I assume is what these merchants have in mind in their use of the term, and seems to be the most popular understanding of the term.
(As opposed to DSM-V, which defines pedophilic disorder—not the same as either pedophile or registrant).
Are we now giving people ammunition to accuse us of “defending pedophiles”?
You present a very valid point and allude to another thought… pedophilic disorder, as classified in DSM-V is a recognized psychological disorder and a psychological disorder can qualify as a disability and therefore is entitled to certain protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Promoting a shirt that says “Shoot Your Local Pedophile” is a criminal threat and could possibly violate 42 U.S.C. § 12203(b).
You bring up a very interesting possibility. Since there is a disorder that is classified in DSM-V and recognized it would fall under the ADA and 42 U.S.C. § 12203(b). Could this also be used against the different Counties and registries for not only failing to protect the class but also for targeting them specifically?
If a Shirt had the saying, “Shoot your local Retard” we know that the Federal Government would step in quickly. Might be an avenue against the registry but it would have to be played properly and at the right moment.
Just a thought.
But the registry does not identify whether someone has a diagnosable disorder.
You don’t innerstand. Most people in Florida think anyone on the registry is a “pedophile“. I’ve heard that from more than enough people to get a good idea of the average uneducated ignorant consensus.
And even so, anyone who wishes harm on anyone else is gonna get a visit from Karma. Harm is harm regardless of someone’s excuse to incite or cause harm. Karma is neutral when it comes to the excuses. You get what you send out and it comes back exponentially bigger.
Do to others as you want done to you. Period.
Think of the universe as a mirror, because basically it is. You get what you give. Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world.
And also, these sellers are violating at least two of Etsy’s policies and created a liability for themselves. All the sellers and Etsy should be sued together for selective enforcement, which always causes trouble for all involved.
It is anti-registrant because while we strive to separate the terms pedophilia and registered person, those outside our cause don’t differentiate.
I’ve brought this up many times over the years. I also brought up that Spencer’s Gifts (yes they still exist and still have brick-and-mortar stores) are also selling these shirts in their stores. It was branded “A**holes Live Forever.” I haven’t seen anyone actually wear such a shirt but when I saw thenm in Spencer’s, there were only three on the shelf, all small sizes. That implies that a few sold since every shirt that comes in have a few of every size up to 2x.