Josh Barro Profile picture
4 Mar, 6 tweets, 2 min read
eBay has a pre-existing policy against "Items with racist, anti-Semitic, or otherwise demeaning portrayals, for example through caricatures or other exaggerated features, including figurines, cartoons, housewares, historical advertisements, and golliwogs"...
there is an exception for "Media such as historical photos, magazines, books and art, provided that such material doesn't perpetuate or glorify violence, intolerance or racial stereotyping," which I'm not entirely sure how you apply.
For example, you can sell a copy of Mein Kampf on eBay. Does the question of whether a book "perpetuate[s]... intolerance" depend on the buyer's likely use for the book rather than the author's intent?
My instinct is that eBay ought to continue to allow the sale of these books (which you could buy in a bookstore as of two days ago) but I don't know how you would write a policy to distinguish them from, for example, racist figurines.
Also, is this policy limited to *visual* portrayals? If eBay wants to get into the business of prohibiting books or films that are considered to have demeaning portrayals of certain groups, it's going to end up making a lot of essentially editorial decisions.
Anyway, I think technology companies have overrated the importance of consistency. If I ran eBay I would allow the continued sale of the books, at least for now while they are the subject of a live controversy and their news value is significant, but not change the policy.

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More from @jbarro

4 Mar
Why is Scott Gottlieb the only person who seems to be any good at talking about our imminent (but not yet here) ability to go back to normal because of vaccines? businessinsider.com/texas-covid-re…
In particular, this 90-day nonsense is driving me crazy and it’s now feeding into policies Andrew Cuomo is setting in New York. businessinsider.com/texas-covid-re…
Texas and Mississippi are lifting restrictions irresponsibly early. But if you want to convince people (officials or members of the public) not to normalize now, you need a story about when they can, and it can't be "maybe by Christmas, mope mope mope" businessinsider.com/texas-covid-re…
Read 4 tweets
4 Mar
This doesn't seem like a way to sell business attire. So this image suggests to me that Suitsupply thinks the initial surge in sales of dressy attire will be for the return of social functions, not business meetings.
"time to put on a suit and look sexy again." I could imagine worse pitches.
I am an outsider to straight culture but my understanding is that one thing single straight people like about weddings is they are a good opportunity to have casual sex, yes?
Read 4 tweets
4 Mar
In general I think publications grant way too much anonymity for opinions, as opposed to information.
This is also usually against their own written policies!
(it is true that Klain's Twitter is kind of oddly active and loosey-goosey. Isn't he busy?)
Read 4 tweets
3 Mar
“Democrats ought to care much more about winning races in R+5 states and much less about whether their nominees adhere to the cultural values of urban college graduates.“
Matt has some good suggestions on how Democrats can run a little better in tipping-point states by giving some ground on zero-stakes cultural politics questions, like Obama used to do. slowboring.com/p/win-elections
But anyway what *I* conclude from Matt’s observation that many Democrats go on about how Republicans are an existential threat to democracy but are unwilling to give even rhetorical ground to win a higher vote share is they don’t believe their “existential threat” talking points.
Read 6 tweets
3 Mar
Probably designed by the same people who locked those mailboxes in the San Fernando Valley as part of a vote suppression conspiracy.
Gotta suppress that Sherman Oaks vote
Read 4 tweets
3 Mar
The next step is obvious: install Tanden at the Domestic Policy Council and nominate Susan Rice to run OMB.
I am not joking, I think.
-Tanden an obvious fit for DPC
-Rice not an obvious fit for OMB but they already gave her DPC so she’s officially a generalist now and why shouldn’t she run OMB?
-Manchin has no particular reason to care about Benghazi
-Owns the cons
Read 4 tweets

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