Former Shopify executives denounce platform for hosting Kanye West’s store selling swastika T-shirts

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Former Shopify Inc. SHOP-T executives joined critics across social media denouncing the e-commerce company for not taking down an online store belonging to controversial hip-hop star Kanye West which is advertising a single item: a white T-shirt emblazoned with a black swastika, typically associated with Nazi Germany.

Mr. West’s website contains no other information other than an image of the product offering three sizes, with the product name “HH-01.”

Mr. West, who also goes by Ye, promoted his website in an advertisement played during the National Football League’s Super Bowl on Sunday. In recent days, he had posted numerous antisemitic messages on his account on X, including ones that praised Hitler. Mr. West’s X account was deleted on Monday.

Shopify chief executive officer Tobi Lütke has previously emphasized the company should avoid being a moral arbiter. The swastika T-shirt is the latest test of the company’s commitments to free speech versus corporate responsibility as standards across the digital media world have shifted quickly in the aftermath of U.S. President Donald Trump’s election last fall.

Shopify did not respond Monday to questions about whether it was aware of the product, whether it violated any policies and whether it would take down the website.

Three former Shopify executives spoke out Monday to say such products shouldn’t be accommodated by the Canadian company.

“This is absolutely vile and disgusting,” said Craig Miller, the company’s former chief marketing officer and chief product officer said. “I haven’t worked with the company in years, and I wouldn’t work for a company where hate speech is considered acceptable.”

“It’s great to grease the wheels of commerce, but not the wheels of hate. Not everything should be scaled,“ said Katie Keita, former senior director of investor relations until 2022, who added she was “ashamed” as a former employee to see the shirt available for sale on a Shopify-hosted site.

Erin Zipes, former Shopify vice-president and assistant general counsel, said that while she supports free speech and allowing consumers to vote with their dollars, allowing Mr. West’s store to remain live had crossed a line. “My sincere hope is that Shopify is taking steps quickly to stop platforming and normalizing this hate,” she said.

Shopify was aware by Monday morning of an issue involving Mr. West’s store and a member of the incident response team posted on an internal Slack channel around 10 am that the company was dealing with it.

Just over four hours later, customer support employees received a Slack message informing them not to not engage with any questions about the controversial artist or his products. “Questions may include something like: Why is Kanye/Ye allowed to sell this? Does Shopify support Nazis? How can Shopify support Kanye/Ye?,” the message, obtained by the Globe and Mail, read.

It instructed employees not to answer such questions and instead ask if they had any support needs for their own stores. And if they persisted in asking Kanye-related questions, “kindly let them know that you will be ending the chat, then do so,” the notice read. The Logic first reported on the company’s Slack messages.

Russ Jones, the company’s chief financial officer until 2018, said the company would have taken the store down when he was working there. He subsequently added that he expected the policies were still in place.

In its Terms of Service, Shopify said it does not does not prescreen products sold though its platform, but that it retains sole discretion to refuse or remove any materials from its website – including shutting down stores themselves – and requires merchants to follow the law in their own jurisdictions.

Canada’s Criminal Code makes it illegal to promote genocide; to incite hatred against a group in public; or to willfully promote antisemitism by condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust.

Until June, 2024, Shopify’s Acceptable Use Policy specifically prohibited hateful content, saying that merchants could not use its platform to “promote or condone hate or violence against people” based on a number of characteristics, including religion. The policy also prohibited using the platform to promote or support organizations that condoned hate. But that webpage was altered to remove specific reference to hateful content, archived versions of the website show.

The policy now instead says that merchants are required to follow “the social contract of commerce,” and cannot “call for, or threaten, violence against specific people or groups” through Shopify’s services. Separately, the company lists a number of prohibited items, but does not specifically reference hate symbols.

In 2017, when challenged for hosting the store for the far-right news website Breitbart, Mr. Lütke wrote a blog post explaining the company’s position “as a platform without restriction,” saying the company frequently faced pressure to censor merchants operating its platform.

“When we kick off a merchant, we’re asserting our own moral code as the superior one,” Mr. Lütke wrote. “But who gets to define that moral code? Where would it begin and end?”

In the blog post, he asserted the company’s support of free speech and said it followed the practices of the American Civil Liberties Union, which itself states it has defended the freedom speech rights of unpopular groups such as Nazis in the past.

The Canadian e-commerce business has come under fire for hosting other controversial content. Last year, Shopify was criticized by advocacy groups the Anti-Defamation League and Stop Antisemitism for hosting a store associated with the brand “TheOfficial1984″ that touted content praising Adolf Hitler.

Incidents of antisemitism have been on the rise in Canada since the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza.

Many brands would have removed the rapper’s store already, fearing reputational damage, said Richard Powers, an associate professor studying business ethics with the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. But as Shopify caters to other businesses, not consumers, it may be less concerned with public impressions, he said.

“It may print a more negative image of Shopify in some people’s minds, but do I think it’s going to hit their bottom line? No,” Mr. Powers said. “For companies that can’t afford their own backroom facilities, Shopify has proven to be a very successful option for them, and they’ll continue to use it.”

Amazon.com Inc. AMZN-Q previously hosted some Nazi-related paraphernalia, but has since removed these items from its online store.

While speaking to investors in the past, Shopify president Harley Finkelstein has noted that it provided the e-commerce support for flash sales of Mr. West’s Yeezy brand. In 2021, Mr. Finkelstein promoted Yeezy products on his personal account on social-media platform X, formerly Twitter, though that post has since been deleted.

Mr. Finkelstein, himself the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, has spoken publicly about his Jewish heritage and is actively involved in Canadian Jewish communities and associations. He previously raised more than $1-million to found the Finkelstein Chabad Jewish Centre in Ottawa.

Mr. Finkelstein did not immediately respond to a text seeking comment.

With reports from Joe Castaldo

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify that Russ Jones, Shopify's chief financial officer until 2018, believed company policies that would have compelled the removal of Kanye West's online store were still in place.