Kiến Thức Cho Người lao Động Việt Nam > Noindex > Amazon Is At It Again, This Time It’s Selling Toilet Seat Covers With Images Of Hindu Gods

Amazon Is At It Again, This Time It’s Selling Toilet Seat Covers With Images Of Hindu Gods

What will it take for companies like Amazon to realise that hurting religious and patriotic sentiments with what they sell won’t increase sales but simply offend communities? In some cases it was noticed that Amazon wasn’t selling these products directly, but third party sellers were. But how does a huge e-commerce platform like Amazon not have a clue of the stuff being sold on its website? One can only assume that the blinders Amazon has on seem to be quite overworked.

A brief timeline of events:

2017: Canadian arm of global e-commerce giant Amazon was seen selling the national flag of India online. A curt warning from External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj– of not granting Indian Visa to any Amazon official–sent Amazon scrambling to remedy the situation. Swaraj tweeted demanding an unconditional apology from the company and that the product should be removed.

 

2017: Not much after the national flag fiasco, Amazon India started selling skateboards with an image of Lord Ganesha on it. Infuriated, Ajay Jagga, a Chandigarh-based advocate then wrote to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking the removal of product, an apology and an FIR, if needed. “If the needful is not done, lodge FIR against under Section 295 of the IPC against Amazon India for hurting the sentiments of people,” he said.

amazon

KXCDN.COM

2018: Next, in December, 2018, there was a strong reaction from the Sikh Coalition after it was found that doormats, rugs and toilet seat covers with the image of Golden Temple were reportedly being sold on Amazon. “It has come to our attention that several sellers are posting products onto your platform that culturally appropriates the imagery of the Golden Temple and spiritual imagery of other eastern cultures,” The Sikh Coalition’s Senior Manager of Advocacy & Policy Sim Singh said in a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Senior Vice President & General Counsel David Zapolsky. Not much later, the product was removed. But, the damage was done. People were pissed off.

 

2019: Earlier this year, in January, Amazon was at it again. This time again, toilet seat covers and floor mats featuring Islamic scripture were reportedly found being sold online. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a “civil rights and advocacy organization”, released a statement asking “Amazon to remove a number of doormats and bath mats imprinted with Islamic calligraphy, references to the Prophet Muhammad and verses from the Quran, Islam’s holy text.” And in a process Amazon was all too familiar with by now, Amazon took down the items. Again, sentiments had been hurt.

Now again, Amazon’s encore performance in the show nobody’s impressed with so far, the company was found selling shoes, rugs and toilet covers with images of Hindu gods on it. And it was just a matter of time before #BoycottAmazon would trend on Twitter. And it did, on May 16, 2019. The following tweet from user Sushil Dixit just about sums up what everyone’s feeling.

Thousands of people on Twitter tagged Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and urged her to take action against the world’s biggest online retailer. This is how Indians across the world reacted to it:

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10. 

 

It’s high time Amazon pulled up its socks. Because while we’re accusing the media and political parties of fuelling the fire of communal discord, we can’t discount e-commerce companies we shop daily from.

Bài viết liên quan
Bài Mới Nhất