iTunes Pulls White Power Music, Amazon Does Not
As Noisey points out, the Southern Poverty Law Center recently published a report that iTunes was selling music from dozens of white power bands, and that iTunes was violating its own terms of service by selling this music. Apple has responded by starting to remove those bands’ music; they’ve removed at least 30 bands now. But Noisey also notes that other digital retailers, like Amazon and Google, still have plenty of proudly racist music up for sale, even though the sales of that music violates those companies terms of service. (Amazon prohibits “products that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such view.”) Meanwhile, various streaming services also offer this stuff. Presumably, Skrewdriver records are not a huge profit-driver for any of these sites or services. It seems perfectly plausible, however, that nobody at these sites has taken the time to investigate the leanings of all these marginal bands who have music available. But that raises the question: Is it long-tail retailers’ responsibility to keep objectionable music unavailable?