In response to the Wednesday’s riot at the U.S. Capitol where former U.S President Donald Trump publicly egged on and supported thousands of his supporters breaking into the building, online stores which were run by the Trump Organization and Trump campaign have been made to shut down permanently on Thursday by Shopify Inc., an e-commerce software provider.
Due to trump’s false claims that he lost to incoming President Joe Biden this November in this elections as a result of a “fraud”, his supporters descended Wednesday on D.C with the intentions of causing disruptions in the certification of the Electoral College vote, which formally certifies Biden’s presidential win. In support of this cause, windows and doors were broken down by Trump supporters. They didn’t stop even then. The Capitol building was barricaded and the supporters spent hours inside, waving pro-Trump and Confederate flags along with vandalizing offices and looting.
Shopify which empowers various e-commerce sites stated that the sites violated a policy that restricts the support of organizations or people “that threaten or approve violence to further a cause”. “As a result, we have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump,” the company representative stated. All the users who searched or even visited sites like TrumpStore.com and sop.donaldjtrump.com have been notified that sites are now unavailable.
Cached versions of the sites show that they had sold merchandise like $45 pairs of Trump-branded champagne flutes, $30 “Make America Great Again” hats, and a $24 poster of a cartoon of Mr. Trump punching into the air.
There are a few other sites that are still selling the merchandise, namely, OfficialTrump2020store.com and Trump-Hats.com. However, Shopify despite stating that it “does not tolerate actions that incite violence,” still appeared to be powering other sites selling Trump merch as of Thursday afternoon. The company highlighted the fact that it can be difficult to police other websites and then declined to further comment on these sites.
“Based on recent events, we have determined that the actions by President Donald J. Trump violate our Acceptable Use Policy, which prohibits promotion or support of organizations, platforms or people that threaten or condone violence to further a cause,” the Shopify representative said earlier on Thursday. “As a result, we have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump.”
