Why Is iTunes Selling White Supremacy?

via AlterNet:



Why Is iTunes Selling White Supremacy?

By Sonia Scherr, SPLC's Hate Watch. Posted August 31, 2009.

iTunes has removed songs deemed homophobic, yet allows white supremacists to peddle their hate on their website.



“Let’s see out the Fuhrer’s dream/To break the back of the eternal jew/Rid the world of the evil we’ve seen/Make it safe for me and you.”
-- From “Under the Hammer” by Brutal Attack

“When the battle is over and the victory is won/And the White man’s lands are owned by true white people/the traitors will all be gone.”
-- From “White Warriors” by Skrewdriver


If you thought such unabashedly bigoted music was available only from underground sources, you’d be wrong. With a few clicks at Apple’s iTunes website, Internet users can buy albums and songs from white supremacist groups such as Bully Boys, Final War, Stormtroop 16 and H8Machine.

But what has one iTunes customer particularly incensed is that the website has apparently removed homophobic songs by reggae artists, but left the white supremacist music. Galen Andrews, who lives outside Des Moines, Iowa, told Hatewatch that he thinks all hate music should be pulled from iTunes. “It made me sick,” he said of the white supremacist music. “I think it’s irresponsible of iTunes to offer that kind of music. I don’t like the fact that they’re selling racism for profit.”

Among the anti-gay songs no longer available on iTunes are Buju Banton’s “Boom Bye-Bye” and T.O.K.’s “Chi-Chi Man,” Andrews said. ITunes, which bills itself as “the world’s most popular digital media player,” did not respond to several phones messages and E-mails seeking comment. However, it’s not the only mainstream music distributor selling racist and offensive tracks.

Although Amazon.com did not return a phone message, it also peddles music from many of the same white supremacist bands. An Amazon.com spokeswoman told Fox News earlier this year that third-party companies were selling the tracks through its website, but declined to elaborate. A spokesman for CDBaby, which distributes independent music, told Hatewatch that the company doesn’t ban artists based on content, though it donates profits from music it deems racist to anti-hate organizations. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/142311/why_is_itunes_selling_white_supremacy/

start in to censoring music. That's a slippery slope we don't want to go down.

They removed songs with homophobic content.

Keep in mind that this is coming from a big Mac fanboy here.

Just look for articles on the horrible process that it takes to get apps approved for the Mac store.

I believe that the answer here is that the humans who manage the iTunes store are too few and poorly managed.

It's no conspiracy.

..... And I'm an iTunes customer. (Although the $1.29/.99 tiered price system is going to put a stop to that.)

Just like the rest of us.

is that bookseller censoring those materials? Do vendors have a responsibility to vend anything that exists without any standards at all? Of course not.

as we do every time an issue like this comes up.

private businesses can and do censor. if i own a bookstore, and i choose not to carry racist or homophobic or any other kind of literature i deem unworthy.

am i censoring?

YES. period.

censor (verb):to examine (as a publication or film) in order to suppress or delete any contents considered objectionable

the issue is that it is wrong and unconstitutional for GOVERNMENT to censor. when govt. censors it affects the entire marketplace. when a private vender censors, they are making ONE editorial/censorious decision. other companies, individuals, etc. are free to offer same materials that the other chose to censor.

that's part of the free market. the free market means johnny bookstore owner makes the decision NOT government.

people just don't want to accept the word "censor", so they try to argue that it's not censorship when a private business does it. iow, change the definitioin of the word.

um, no.

when a private business does it, it is STILL censorship. but as long as it's not govt. censorship, it is not unconstitutional.

That would probably put them out of business, so it won't happen.

gone.

Who thinks this stuff is cool (particularly the rockabilly versions) since he discovered it on I-tunes. He's a half-fast wannabe biker, which in the Brockton neighborhood apparently means racisim is cool...... I dunno, me.
Knotheads like him can get into enough trouble without help from the supremacist losers.

and should continue to be. I'd prefer these download services offer EVERY SONG EVER MADE over removing "objectionable" material.