Shopify’s Right-Wing Inner Circle w/ Luke LeBrun & Rachel Gilmore
08 08 24
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Shopify’s Right-Wing Inner Circle
Luke Lebrun, Rachel Gilmore
Notes
Paris Marx is joined by Luke LeBrun and Rachel Gilmore to discuss Shopify's connection to right-wing politics, through its interpersonal connection to a far-right news outlet and its reluctance to enforce its content policy on users selling hateful merchandise through their platform.
Guest
Luke LeBrun is the editor of PressProgress and Rachel Gilmore is an independent journalist.
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Links
- Luke reported on Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian’s involvement in and funding of a right-wing Canadian “news” website called True North.
- Rachel reported on Shopify’s decisions not to disable support for stores that sell fraudulent goods and promote hate that’s in violation of their Acceptable Use Policy. She recently pointed out a series of stores Shopify still supports that sell Nazi memorabilia.
- Last year, an anonymous former Shopify worker spoke out about the right-wing culture at the company. Rachel confirmed the person had worked for Shopify.
- In 2022, Tobi Lutke was granted a “founder’s share,” guaranteeing him 40% voting power. 46% of shareholders voted against the proposal.
- Shopify found itself in the spotlight in 2021 when employees found a noose emoji had been added to the company’s Slack system.
- Shopify President Harley Finkelstein has been publicly opposing plans to raise taxes on capital gains. Only 0.13% of Canadians will be paying more tax under the plan.
- Some right-wing figures in Canada deny the truth of the residential schools.