eBay Lands on 2023 ‘Dirty Dozen’ List of Mainstream Corporate Contributors to Sexual Exploitation
The ‘Dirty Dozen’ campaign highlights twelve mainstream organizations that enable or benefit from sexual abuse and exploitation, as compiled by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE).
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Since 2013, the Dirty Dozen List has inspired thousands of individuals to urge corporations, government agencies, and organizations to reform their problematic policies and practices.
Over the years, the campaign has brought attention to misconduct by companies including Google, CVS, Hilton, American Apparel, United Airlines, Walmart, Verizon, as well as social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.
Among the twelve companies to make the list in 2023, it includes eBay, under the heading of an old slogan: WHATEVER IT IS, YOU CAN GET IT ON EBAY.
“She has a sweet little nose, innocent eyes, and pigtails. Your 9-year-old niece will love it – the doll looks just like her. But then you realize the doll is posed on a bed – and as you focus in on the rest of the photos posted by the seller, you can’t believe what you’re seeing. The images of abuse are so realistic, so incredibly disturbing that they haunt you even after you quickly close your web browser. How is it possible these products are being sold on your favorite online shopping site?,” NCOSE introduces its allegations against eBay.
After Amazon, eBay is the second-largest online marketplace in the United States and the organization alleges that “eBay is providing a platform for and profiting from products that normalize and likely even contribute to child sexual abuse, image-based sexual abuse (nonconsensual filming and sharing of sexually explicit images), and the objectification and degradation of women and girls.”
NCOSE claims that eBay allows the sale of “countless sex dolls – including ones that look like young girls – and cameras explicitly advertised for filming women naked and in sexual situations without their knowledge or consent.”
The organization goes on to explain some very explicit listings they found on the online marketplace, suggesting the “photos are so graphic, so life-like that they may be considered hardcore pornography.” It even provided a sample (highly censored) image.
NCOSE calls out eBay because other marketplaces such as Amazon, Etsy, Wish, and even Alibaba, have taken measures to rid their platforms of childlike sex dolls and spy cams advertising.
Letter to eBay CEO Jamie Iannone
The organization sent a letter to eBay CEO Jamie Iannone on April 26, 2023, detailing numerous allegations and providing examples of images and listings it found on the platform that are unacceptable and should not be permitted.
One significant point in the letter highlights a longstanding complaint from sellers that eBay does not adequately enforce its existing policies:
“While we commend eBay for having several strong policies on paper against certain forms of exploitation, they are not being enforced.”
The letter goes on to recommend five significant changes the platform should adapt to eliminate exploitation on eBay. Summarized, they include:
- Remove all products that normalize child sex abuse and permanently ban sellers.
- Ban and remove all products that objectify women and childlike sex abuse dolls.
- Prohibit products and advertising that encourage recording of women without their knowledge, as well as add new policies that prohibit promoting image-based sexual abuse.
- Enforce existing policies on adult material and blurring nudity.
- Develop a better filtering mechanism to protect users who do not wish to see explicit content.
In conclusion, NCOSE wrote, “We hope that eBay will join its industry peers in making the principled choice to stop profiting from products that normalize and even facilitate sexual exploitation and abuse. We urge you to make the changes outlined above, which would improve the safety of your platform and disassociate your brand from violence against women and children.”
Learn More
As previously mentioned, the 2023 ‘Dirty Dozen’ list includes twelve mainstream corporations. In addition to eBay, the NCOSE also called out the Apple App Store, Discord, Instagram, Kik, Microsoft Github, OnlyFans, Reddit, Roblox, Snapchat, Spotify, and Twitter.
The NCOSE page for eBay is available here. To learn more about the Dirty Dozen list, click here, and the homepage of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation is here.
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Richard Meldner
Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.
To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.