Tag: ebay

‘Who could devise these tortuous packages?’ Shaken Massachusetts couple speak for first time about how eBay staff tormented them with pig fetus, funeral wreath and porn for criticizing web giant on their e-commerce news site

A couple have details of a ‘depraved’ campaign of harassment they endured at the hands of eBay staff after criticizing the web giant on their e-commerce news site.   

David and Ina Steiner received live cockroaches, a book on surviving the loss of a spouse, a bereavement wreath and a mask from the movie Saw that the killer wears before kidnapping, torturing and killing his victims.

David also recalled the moment he received a disturbing call from a shop in Arizona telling them they couldn’t deliver the ‘wet specimen’ they ordered. 

‘Not having any idea what a wet specimen was, I asked her. It was an embalmed pig fetus’, the shaken stalking victim told Good Morning America. 

The neighbors even received pornography addressed to David in a bid to cause the couple maximum embarrassment. 

‘Who could devise these tortuous packages? And the depravity – the messages , if you read the language – I never in a million years would have thought it was a company,’ Ina said.

The harassment started in June 2019 when a neighbor walking his dog pointed out that the Steiners’ fence had been graffitied.

It soon spiraled from the vandalism and unwanted, ‘really disturbing’ email subscriptions to eBay employees trying to place a tracking device on the car.

Prosecutors suspected the campaign was to stop the Steiners from continuing EcommerceBytes, a site dedicated to e-commerce news David and Ina have been running from their home for the past 22 years.

The site had been critical of eBay and its policies over the course of its reporting, which the Steiners say was honest and fair. 

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eBay says it will let governments automatically remove listings

In a move that observers fear may represent a setback for fair moderation of product listings – and of content in general – ecommerce giant eBay has announced that it is proceeding with a project aimed at allowing government regulators to remove items they see as “dangerous listings” directly from the site, with no need to consult the company.

eBay is also letting regulators – from some 50 countries around the world – decide that there is enough evidence that a listing might pose a risk to consumers, and once eBay declares these offices as “trusted authorities” their powers to remove items from the site will be unlimited. The company has not yet revealed the criteria that will guide this selection of state authorities it trusts to be making decisions in its place.

The company said the aim is to speed up and streamline the process of removal of listings, while the ones designated as dangerous will be considered either illegal or unsafe, and authorities will be able to delete them without further interacting with eBay.

eBay is talking up the project to wash its hands off responsibility for this type of online “moderation” as something that others in the industry will adopt as well, describing at the same time collaboration with authorities as “vital.”

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If Nazi & Bomb Making Books Can Openly Sell On eBay, Why Did They Cancel Dr. Seuss?

Earlier this week, the internet was in an uproar amid the controversy over the company who owns the rights to Dr. Seuss announcing that several of their titles will no longer be sold because they were deemed to contain “insensitive and racist imagery.”

Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which preserves the author’s legacy, announced this week six books – “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “If I Ran the Zoo,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!,” and “The Cat’s Quizzer” – would no longer be printed.

“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises told The Associated Press in a statement.

“Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families,” it said, noting that they came to the decision internally.

Whether planned or not, the companies decision to stop selling these six titles sent sales of Dr. Seuss books through the roof. As of Thursday “The Cat in The Hat,” “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” and “Green Eggs and Ham,” three of Seuss’s best-known works, were all out of stock on Amazon and other places.

For a brief moment, the banned books were gaining premium prices of several hundred dollars on eBay as well.

People aren’t buying these now-cancelled books for hundreds of dollars each to preserve the imagery of the controversial content so they can teach their children racial stereotypes. They are simply snagging — what they think will be — a valuable collectable in the future because of nostalgia and to make sure the books don’t entirely disappear; which they should absolutely be doing.

While outlets like Amazon and others all continued to sell Dr. Seuss’s works, sites like eBay quickly moved to ban the sale of these six titles in a failed attempt at virtue signaling that was embarrassing on many fronts. What’s more, it exposed a hypocrisy that runs deep in the realm of big tech.

On eBay right now, there are multiple auctions for books on how to make improvised explosives and racism. Yet the auction giant is worried about questionably offensive children’s books with messages on how to be a good person.

Kurt Saxon, 88, is a former member of the American Nazi Party and author of The Poor Man’s James Bond, a series of books on improvised weapons and munitions. Currently, there are dozens of copies of these books for sale on eBay.

If Nazi bomb making isn’t your thing, there are also dozens of copies of the U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook US Army Survival Paperback for sale on the platform.

In fact, there are countless “controversial” books that remain for sale on eBay despite the auction giant cancelling Dr. Seuss.

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The Virtual Book Burning Continues: eBay Bans Listings of ‘Offensive’ Dr. Seuss Books

Online action site eBay has banned users from selling copies of the Dr. Seuss books that the left found “problematic.”

The company is now messaging users saying that their listings have been removed because it didn’t follow the “Offensive Material Policy.”

Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced this week that they are discontinuing six of the author’s books that crazy liberal activists have been complaining about, including If I Ran the Zoo and And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.

“Listings that promote or glorify hatred, violence, or discrimination aren’t allowed,” the message said.

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