Amazon continues to sell QAnon goods even after booting pro-Trump Parler from its cloud service

Amazon’s continued sale of products that support, or even glorify QAnon, is “alarming, but not altogether surprising,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks extremism nationwide. Historically, Amazon’s approach to addressing the sale of hateful goods is to remove them only after critics complain.

“They don’t do things proactively, but when things are brought to their attention, they respond,” Greenblatt said. “ It’s an insufficient strategy to address the virulent spread of hateful ideologies.”

An Amazon spokeswoman didn’t have immediate comment. (The Washington Post is owned by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos.)

While QAnon goods remain available for sale on Amazon’s site, the company has taken other steps to quell the voices that incited violence at the U.S. Capitol last week. Over the weekend, Amazon suspended Parler from its cloud-computing service, accusing the pro-Trump social network of violating its terms of service given its inadequate content-moderation practices. And last week, the Amazon-owned video service Twitch disabled Trump’s account indefinitely.

Parler sued Amazon Monday, alleging Amazon violated its contract and was also being hypocritical because such language is posted on other sites.

QAnon, which took root on anonymous message boards in 2017, has been identified by the FBI as a potential domestic terrorist threat. Its adherents believe President Trump is battling a cabal of deep state saboteurs who worship Satan and traffic children for sex.

Amazon’s own policies would seem to preclude the sale of QAnon items on its marketplace. The company bars the sale of offensive and controversial materials, including items that “promote, incite or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views.”