Nazi propaganda for sale on Trade Me labelled 'abhorrent'
Monday, 18 July 2022
The Jewish community says the continued sale and promotion of Nazi propaganda materials on Trade Me is “abhorrent”.
Community leaders and the RSA say the auction site should be doing more to police its own policy, which includes a ban on materials created after 1933 that bear a swastika, and “any other media identified as Nazi propaganda or that otherwise promotes hatred or racial supremacy”.
On Monday, Trade Me was hosting dozens of listings that appeared to directly breach these policies, including stamps, postcards, books and posters with swastikas, Third Reich emblems, people doing the Nazi salute, and portraits of Adolf Hitler.
Many of the listings were from a seller based in Porirua, who has 112 listings relating to Nazi Germany and Italy’s fascist regime.
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While owning and distributing these types of materials is not illegal in New Zealand, Jewish community leaders have questioned whether their sale and promotion are consistent with Trade Me’s stated values and good corporate responsibility.
“If I was running Trade Me, I would not want it representing the company that I’m running,” said Rob Berg, the president of the Zionist Federation of New Zealand.
Berg said the auctions were a “wake-up call” that issues relating to discrimination, hate and anti-Semitism were on our doorstep.
“It is a reminder that these hate groups – whether they be far-right or far-left or wherever they come from – they are out there, and they are in New Zealand, and they are feeling emboldened.”
Berg said New Zealand needed to fight this with education, rather than censorship.
“Because when things are underground, you have no way of really challenging and educating people.”
New Zealand Jewish Council spokesperson Juliet Moses said there was no magic wand to deal with the global rise of white supremacy or neo-Nazism.
But this example fed into a wider conversation about how to tackle hate in communities, and the part the internet played in radicalising communities.
Moses said she was concerned Trade Me’s algorithms were promoting these items, and possibly funnelling Kiwis down a dangerous rabbit hole.
The comments come after a Trade Me user had a portrait of Adolf Hitler promoted to her by the site in its ‘$1 reserve auction’ specials on Friday.
The item was clearly labelled: “Nazi Germany Hitler Propaganda”. The seller described it as “a very special Hitler postcard”.
The Trade Me user, who asked not to be identified out of concern for her safety, said she had never sought out items like this and was “fairly horrified” the site’s algorithms were suggesting she purchase a Hitler portrait.
After emailing a complaint to Trade Me on Friday, the user received an automated promotional email from the auction site suggesting she purchase a book on 1936 Nazi Olympic Games on Afterpay. The album’s cover featured a Swastika and the Third Reich emblem. It sold for $715 on Sunday.
“The fact that Trade Me isn’t just hosting it, but they’re promoting it and profiting off it is sickening,” the woman said.
Trade Me wasn’t the arbiter of what was socially acceptable, she said.
“But everyone who is a member of society has an obligation to stand up against Nazis. I don’t think that's a very grey line; that should be a very clear line in the sand.”
There had been recent discussions about “shadowy forces” and disinformation being quietly seeded online, she said.
“That’s not what's happening here. This is in broad daylight. This is swastikas, and the Nazi salute, and very clear, bold portraits of Hitler.”
The woman said her grandfather ran away from home at 16 to fight in WWII.
“If he knew a business in a country where he found safety after the war is profiting off Nazism, I don’t know what he’d do.”
RSA national president BJ Clark said New Zealand’s veterans fought for freedom of speech, but that should not mean that flagrantly offensive material should be freely available.
It was disappointing that Nazi memorabilia remained highly collectable when it was associated with the misery inflicted on so many, Clark said.
The RSA was aware of the site’s strict policies relating to the sale of Nazi memorabilia, he said.
“We would hope that Trade Me would be closely monitoring listings of this nature that could cause offence, and act swiftly to remove listings and ban users that breach their policies.”
In a statement, Trade Me head of trust and safety Lisa Kerr said the site had “a zero tolerance policy for items that promote or glorify hateful or intolerant ideologies”.
Generally, historical items including photos, magazines, books, stamps and art were not prohibited, provided they did not promote or glorify violence, intolerance or racist ideology, she said.
Historical items from the World War II era could be listed on the site, but there were strict rules around how they could be marketed. If they were promoting hateful or intolerant ideologies Trade Me would remove the item and, where necessary, inform relevant Government agencies.
“We understand that these items aren’t for everyone, but they can be legally bought and sold in New Zealand, and we don’t believe it’s our place to make that decision for Kiwis,” Kerr said.
Trade Me was reviewing its algorithms to make sure recommendations were appropriate and relevant for its members. Kerr encouraged users to report any concerning listings.