Shopify says they only closed Kanye West's store because they thought he might not actually ship the Nazi t-shirts, not because they were Nazi t-shirts. Truly a principled stand.
In the message, which was posted on Shopify's Slack Tuesday morning, general counsel Jess Hertz said the swastika-emblazoned T-shirt listed for sale by West was "a stunt" and "not a good faith attempt to make money." [...]
Shopify instituted its acceptable use policy in August 2018, following criticism over its handling of right-wing groups using its platform to make money. The terms allow "space for all types of products, even the ones that we disagree with, but not for the kind of products intended to harm," CEO Tobi Lütke said in a blog post at the time. He had previously argued that Shopify should not withdraw services from merchants because "products are speech and we are pro free speech."
Like I keep saying:
Put yourself in this hypothetical. You own a company. It is a for-profit corporation, not a public utility. Today, you have to pick one of the two checkboxes that read,
☐ Be in business with actual Nazis;
☑ Do not be in business with actual Nazis.In a world full of gray areas, that's pretty fucking charcoal.