Criticizes e-commerce sites about hate-related items
By Ji Hyun Lim
Some 40 million-plus Internet users regularly log-in to Cyberspace. A convenient way to research, shop and chat, the Internet also offers a cheap and easy way to spread propaganda — including hate messages.
Organizations like the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) have criticized companies like BarnesNoble.com and Amazon.com for their sloppy job of monitoring hate-related items.
JACL wrote a letter to e-commerce leaders urging them to prohibit the sale of certain items on their sites, in particular recent goods related to World War II propaganda against Japanese and Japanese Americans. Ryan Chin, president of JACL public affairs, pointed out that these items — and, in fact, all Japan-related items — are described using the abbreviation “Jap” instead of “Jpn.”
“Jap is derogatory and not an abbreviation for Japanese,” Chin said. “Clearly, it has malicious intent.”
This year Yahoo! and eBay, the Internet’s most popular auction sites, announced they would no longer sell hate items. So far, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com have been the most resistant to acquiescing to their requests, reports JACL.
Unlike its neighbor, Canada, which has a criminal code against “hate propaganda” specifically (words that advocate genocide, incite hatred, and willfully promote hatred against an identifiable group), the United States protects the rights of free speech.
Private companies have the choice of whether to ban such items. And e-commerce is unregulated and lucrative. The Internet constitutes a $300 billion dollar industry, according to a group of economists at the University of Texas. Mediametrix.com reports that Yahoo.com ranked No. 3 of 50 in terms of Web site hits. It had 58,464 hits during the month of April alone. Amazon.com came in at No. 10 with 19,163 hits that month. Ebay was No. 11 with 18,447 hits.
Chin realizes that with their huge audiences, regulating these sites is difficult.
“There are no Internet regulations. We are merely targeting the major players,” Chin said.
Chin recalled that JACL has had to go through major hurdles to remove some hate-related items. After confrontations with policy compliance departments and having individual items removed, oftentimes a person will just resubmit the items under the same name, and the whole process would start over again, Chin said.
Still, JACL warns that ignoring the problem may increase or incite anti-Asian sentiments.
“The danger of not establishing such policies is that it encourages ignorance and bigotry as a whole,” Chin said. “It’s detrimental to our society by encouraging hate that leads to violent and malicious acts.”
Reach Ji Hyun Lim at jlim@asianweek.com |
