Amazon UK defaced with racist abuse

[Guest]

Seems someone has been attacking listings on Amazon UK

 

Quote

Amazon has blamed a "bad actor" for racist abuse that appeared on multiple listings on its UK website.

The abuse, now removed, appeared when users searched the online shop for Apple AirPods and similar products.

It was unclear how long the racist language remained on the site, but it sparked outrage on Twitter and the sharing of screenshots and video grabs.

"We are removing the images in question and have taken action on the bad actor," Amazon told the BBC.

The company did not elaborate on the "bad actor", nor give details of how many products were defaced and how long the abuse was visible on the listings. 

Nadine White, a journalist for the Huffington Post, tweeted that the abuse "needs to be acknowledged, removed, explained, apologised for asap. Being Black right now is hard enough; we don't need to be called the N- word while shopping online, to boot".

 

I detest racism of all forms, and hatred of all forms. It seems nowhere is safe from it and here in the UK it does appear to be more common than the last twenty years.

 

Quote

Another Twitter user said Amazon should have been able to remove the offending messages in minutes. "They're still on Amazon UK. Extraordinarily poor site administration," he said during early hours of Sunday.

It did seem to remain for quite a long time, the twitter storm was raging for a day before action was taken.

Quote

Amazon also allows third-party retailers to sell goods through its website, with the company making about half its retail revenues from this.

But the Amazon Marketplace platform has come under scrutiny.

There has been concern about counterfeit goods appearing in the listings, and during the coronavirus pandemic Amazon was criticised for not doing enough to stop sellers inflating prices.

In April, five Amazon e-commerce websites, including the UK, were added to the US trade regulator's "notorious markets" report on marketplaces known for counterfeiting and piracy concerns.

Amazon disagreed strongly with the move, saying in a statement that "this purely political act is another example of the administration using the US government to advance a personal vendetta against Amazon"

I still see iffy, dangerous  and counterfeit products listed On Amazon but to be fair they have been removing them a lot faster than in the past, and many products that were well known to be dangerous and even illegal in the UK have gone from the site. I do wonder if the Marketplace element of the store has grown too rapidly for them to keep up with regulating it.

 

As for this issue, Amazon do not say how the problem/hacking happened, how long the products were affected and who did the damage. They also do not say if there was any data breach. Hopefully they will be open and reveal more details.

[wANKER]

So, in short, a third party seller changed their product images/titles/descriptions or w/e to include racist language? 

After which Amazon removed it? 

 

IMO it's news articles like this which are just adding fuel to the fire. 

Making it look as if Amazon have played some part in racist propaganda - when in reality it was just some piece of shit looking to kick something off , which they have achieved. 

 

[imreloadin]

9 minutes ago, Phill104 said:

I detest racism of all forms, and hatred of all forms.

Do you detest hatred of racism then?

 

Just now, wANKER said:

IMO it's news articles like this which are just adding fuel to the fire.

Indeed, it's quite a nothing event. Something bad was posted on a website and the people running that website removed it.

This is just an example of someone trying to hop on the bandwagon to get clicks...

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, wANKER said:

So, in short, a third party seller changed their product images/titles/descriptions or w/e to include racist language? 

After which Amazon removed it? 

 

IMO it's news articles like this which are just adding fuel to the fire. 

Making it look as if Amazon have played some part in racist propaganda - when in reality it was just some piece of shit looking to kick something off , which they have achieved. 

 

I blame the gas man....

 

You are probably right how it happened, although it may have been someone who managed to get hold of a third party sellers credentials. I think many were miffed simply because of the length of time it took Amazon to react. Maybe they will have to go the route of moderation before any new sellers post goes live, at least until they reach a set trusted level. 

[StDragon]

So after being cooped up due to human malware, mass-unemployment, and now a racial fuse has been lit...seem to me the entire world is destined to go up in flames.

 

Billy Joel was right.

 

[JZStudios]

2 hours ago, Phill104 said:

Nadine White, a journalist for the Huffington Post, tweeted that the abuse "needs to be acknowledged, removed, explained, apologised for asap. Being Black right now is hard enough; we don't need to be called the N- word while shopping online, to boot".

I'm sorry, who's apologizing? Amazon or the guy that wrote a racist review? It's clearly been acknowledged and removed, who's to explain it? And then you're trying to convince me that white is black?

Man, these people.

[suicidalfranco]

slow news day i guess

[Trik'Stari]

8 hours ago, wANKER said:

IMO it's news articles like this which are just adding fuel to the fire. 

 

As far as I am aware that's the point. These mainstream journalists make more money the more salacious and inflammatory the story.

[ARikozuM]

So, we're bringing this up why?

 

Also, just name the dude/tte and let them get their ass beat down. 

 

Also also, why are there no filters for this kind of stuff?

[crystal6tak]

Quick! Someone post something racist on LTT and get ALL the news press! /s

[Andreas Lilja]

8 hours ago, wANKER said:

So, in short, a third party seller changed their product images/titles/descriptions or w/e to include racist language? 

After which Amazon removed it? 

 

IMO it's news articles like this which are just adding fuel to the fire. 

Making it look as if Amazon have played some part in racist propaganda - when in reality it was just some piece of shit looking to kick something off , which they have achieved. 

 

I knew everything I had to know when I saw Huffington Post.

[ARikozuM]

28 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

Oh, I thought you said raytracist.

No wonder I'm only getting 5 frames. 

 

[StDragon]

1 hour ago, ARikozuM said:

No wonder I'm only getting 5 frames. 

 

Obviously you're getting robbed of performance.

[ARikozuM]

1 hour ago, StDragon said:

Obviously you're getting robbed of performance.

No kidding. My GPU is sending frames to the HP inkjet in the corner. 

[Guest]

7 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

So, we're bringing this up why?

 

Also, just name the dude/tte and let them get their ass beat down. 

 

Also also, why are there no filters for this kind of stuff?

It is harder to filter wording in an image than a simple word filter. Still possible though, just takes more effort.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Off Topic

And locked.

 

ECommerce sites press issues are not tech. This has been noted about other Amazon related news in past. Plus the situation in US currently is severe, and posts like this can and will go wrong really fast. There's already two fuses been lit in this thread.