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- Amazon removed listings on Wednesday for shirts featuring a logo for the far-right group the Proud Boys.
- Trump’s quote “stand back, stand by” from Tuesday night’s presidential debate was on the merchandise.
- Amazon subsequently removed the items, a company spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.
- “All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action including potential removal of their account,” Amazon said, although it did not specify which rules the seller had broken.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Amazon confirmed it has removed items from its online store that featured logos for the far-right white nationalist group the Proud Boys.
The items of clothing were spotted by activist group Sleeping Giants, and referenced a quote from President Trump during Tuesday night’s presidential debate: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”
The t-shirts read: “Stand back PB stand by.”
—Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) September 30, 2020
Sleeping Giants later tweeted the items appeared to have been taken down. Amazon confirmed to Business Insider the items in question had been removed, but did not elaborate on whether it was enforcing a broader policy on banning Proud Boys items.
“All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action including potential removal of their account. We are removing these products,” an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement, but did not clarify exactly which guidelines these items had infringed.
Amazon has a policy banning any products that which: “incite or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views.”
The Proud Boys are identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “hate group.”
Trump came out with the line “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by” during his Tuesday debate with Joe Biden after the moderator asked whether he would condemn white supremacists and right-wing militia groups.
The president then veered into an attack on left-wing groups.
The Proud Boys have rapidly adopted Trump’s “stand back stand by” as a form of branding, and some members of the group appear to have interpreted it as a call to action.
Sleeping Giants reacted to Amazon’s quiet removal of the items with disdain. “Unfortunately, as what regularly happens with Amazon, they will not apologize nor make any statement about their total abdication of responsibility,” the group tweeted.
Amazon has struggled in the past to keep items associated with the far-right off its platform, and in August was found to be selling items associated with the Boogaloo Bois far-right extremist group weeks after promising to remove its products.
