Amazon staff ‘mistakenly’ took down religious ads
San Francisco: Employees from e-commerce giant Amazon have been “mistakenly” taking down ads with religious content that has negatively affected the sale of products from some small sellers.
Multiple sellers have seen their product ads getting suspended in recent months for having religious content. These sellers were told through email that their ads were getting blocked due to a “new policy update” at Amazon which bans any ad that contains “religious content”, CNBC reported on Saturday,
Explaining itself on the subject, Amazon said the company is now implementing “corrective training” to clarify what kind of religious material is acceptable.
“Products related to a specific religion are not allowed to be advertised. The email viewed contains inaccurate information and our long standing policies have not changed. Corrective training is being provided to the relevant teams,” the report quoted an Amazon spokesperson as saying.
It remains unclear how so many workers collectively misunderstood what the company implied in its policies.
Amazon’s ad policies bar ads that “advocate or demean” a religion, but that does not preclude selling religious material in the first place, Engadget reported.