Shopify bans Proud Boys after activist pressure

Shopify Inc. will ban some right-wing organizations from its platform after accusations from activists that it was supporting hate-promoting groups.

The Canadian e-commerce company tweaked its rules to allow it to bar anyone who uses Shopify to sell items that support groups that it believes condone hate or violence. The move affects Proud Boys, a right-wing group founded by Gavin McInnes, a Canadian writer and co-founder of Vice Media, that was recently kicked off Facebook and Instagram. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies Proud Boys as a hate group.

Facebook banned accounts and pages associated with Proud Boys earlier this month after the group was accused of attacking protesters in New York.

Shopify, which provides tools to help hundreds of thousands of merchants sell online, has found itself in political fights before. In August, it banned the sale of some semi-automatic firearms and gun parts, with chief executive officer Tobi Lutke saying neutrality on some issues wasn’t possible for the company. Monday’s change does not affect the online store of Breitbart, the conservative news site some activists have pressured Shopify to stop serving.

The Ottawa-based company’s stock has rocketed more than 700 per cent since its initial public offering in May 2015. With the growth has come new scrutiny. Along with political questions about what kinds of products and people to ban, Shopify has had to develop new tools to stop its stores from being used to defraud consumers.