Petition urges Shopify to cut ties with Breitbart

By Jake Munro

Corporate watchdog group SumOfUs has ramped up the pressure in its campaign to get Ottawa-based e-commerce giant Shopify to end its business relationship with Breitbart News.

SumOfUs spearheaded an open letter signed by nearly 200,000 Shopify customers echoing this sentiment and delivered the missive to Shopify’s Elgin Street headquarters on March 2.

The company runs a sales platform for online stores.

Breitbart is one of many online merchants around the world using Shopify’s platform.

A right-wing American media outlet, Breitbart is a strong supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, and has been accused of promoting racist and sexist messages.

“No, JC Penney, Fat People Should Absolutely Hate Themselves” and “Why Equality And Diversity Departments Should Only Hire Rich, Straight White Men” are examples of headlines Breitbart has published in the past.

SumOfUs has been pressuring Shopify to drop Breitbart since the end of 2016.

The news site has gained global attention after one of its founding figures, Steve Bannon, was named Trump’s top White House adviser.

Tobias Lütke, CEO of Shopify, defended his company’s decision to keep Breitbart in a statement posted to the online publishing platform Medium: “Products are a form of free speech, and free speech must be fiercely protected, even if we disagree with some of the voices.”

Emma Pullman, lead campaign strategist at SumOfUs, disagrees.

“I think that when you’re talking about profit, you can’t make a free speech argument,” said Pullman.

“The company as it stands is literally profiting off of white supremacy.”

SumOfUs has also circulated a separate petition titled “Shopify: Stop endorsing hate.”

The petition demands that Shopify end its relationship with Breitbart, and it has generated more than 200,000 signatures since the start of 2017.

Local restaurant Union 613 already cut its ties with Shopify because of the online commerce company’s refusal to kick Breitbart from their platform. Union 613 also fully supports the petition.

Ivan Gedz, co-owner of Union 613, said it wasn’t merely Shopify maintaining its relationship with Breitbart that forced the restaurant’s hand, but rather CEO Lütke’s response to the decision.

“If they (Shopify) flat out said, ‘You know what, we’re a $1.9 billion company, we just signed a huge deal with Amazon in January, we’re beholden to our shareholders who don’t want to see any decision making that could potentially preclude the business from growing, and that’s why we’re sticking with Breitbart,’ I may have still dropped them. But at least I would have respected what they were saying,” Gedz explained.

Union 613 used Shopify’s platform to advertise events and sell tickets, and according to Gedz the restaurant experienced a substantial backlash from its online community over the decision to seek a different e-commerce company.

“We had emails from Shopify employees saying that they would never come back,” said Gedz. “People were calling and just ripping into us about how politics and business shouldn’t mix. What are you, stupid?”

Even though Shopify didn’t immediately make any public announcement concerning the open letter or petition, Pullman said she’s confident the activist group’s actions is having an effect.

“I find it very interesting that Shopify had locked its doors today, then actually came to the door to receive the petitions,” she said. “I think that’s a pretty good sign that the company is quite concerned about the public perception of its failure to stop doing business with Breitbart.”

“I think that it’s becoming more and more clear that companies have to take a side,” Pullman said. “Companies in the United States, like Uber, have already had to take a side and I don’t think that Shopify can maintain this claim of neutrality.”

Shopify did not offer comment.

“I feel pretty confident that the online campaign, the grassroots campaign, and this petition are all building enough momentum, and that the company is going to have to respond,” said Pullman.

Note: An earlier version of this story reported 2,000 petitioners.