Amazon Advertises on Far-right Hate Figure Tommy Robinson’s Website

Tommy Robinson is a far-right, neo-fascist, white nationalist figure from the UK. As a result of a campaign by activists and British MPs, Robinson was banned from all major social media. In response, Robinson set up tr.news to promote his hateful worldview. Recently, tr.news published a banner to advertise Robinson’s book Enemy of the State, featuring the Amazon logo.  

Media Diversity Institute (MDI), GTTO partner in the UK, were shocked by this. Amazon’s own Creative Acceptance Policies state that “threatening, abusive, or harassing, or content that advocates or discriminates against a protected group (whether based on race, color, national origin, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age or any similar or another category)” is prohibited from all ads. Having exposed Robinson’s hateful ideology on a number of occasions (here and here), MDI wondered why Amazon allowed tr.news to use their logo to advertise Robinson’s book. 

On 17th June, MDI sent an official letter of complaint to Amazon asking the online shopping giant “to stop associating its name with the racist statements of Tommy Robinson”. In addition, MDI requested a meeting with Amazon’s head of policy to discuss the issue of hate speech and possible collaboration in tackling it in greater depth. No reply had been received at the time of writing.