Don’t Support Free Speech Through Commerce: Guarantee It

Ecommerce platforms are forced to make decisions about what type of commerce they allow. These decisions are influenced by many factors. Since these platforms are controlled by companies comprised of humans with varying opinions, the freedom to buy or sell any particular good or service can never be guaranteed.

At least, that’s how it used to work. Today, new technologies like Bitcoin and OpenBazaar guarantee that people can always engage in commerce no matter what the major platforms decide to do.

Recently the CEO of Shopify, Tobias Lütke, wrote an article defending their decision to allow the controversial media outlet Breitbart to sell merchandise on their platform, even though he strongly opposes Breitbart’s politics and their ideology. This was an unpopular decision with some people who started a Twitter campaign called #DeleteShopify.

Tobias made it clear how he views commerce:

Commerce is a powerful, underestimated form of expression… Products are a form of speech, and free speech must be fiercely protected, even if we disagree with some of the voices.

I commend his decision, and agree with his comments on commerce. Engaging in commerce is as fundamentally human as any other action, and it should be protected as fiercely as free speech.

However, the companies should be able to set their own terms as they see fit, and not all commerce platforms are as supportive of free speech. In 2014 Etsy banned the sale of all merchandise related to the Redskins NFL team, citing “protection from discrimination.” Ebay prevents the sale of “offensive material” and in 2015 added Confederate flags to this list.

Not allowed on Etsy

Alibaba’s list of prohibited goods stretches across 13 major categories and includes “Precious metals” and “Prohibited audiovisual products (eg. TV series, movies)”. Shopify itself has a list of sixty types of businesses that are prohibited from using their payments services, including “Alcohol,” “Cruise lines,” “Festival tickets,” “Human hair, fake hair, or hair-extensions,” “Tobacco, e-cigarettes, vaporizers and accessories including e-juice,” and dozens of others.

Amazon has taken commerce censorship another step and prohibits the sale of the Chromecast media streaming device — solely because it sells a competing product itself, the Fire Stick.

Shopify — and all major commerce platforms online — are managed by the companies running them, and they have complete control over the trade that happens there. They can shut down any stores or listings they want at any time for any reason.

Supporters of free speech could begin a campaign to pressure all of these companies to make sure their right to free speech is “fiercely protected,” but based on their actions it seems likely to fall on deaf ears.

Furthermore, though Tobias’ words are commendable, we have no assurances that Shopify’s hands-off policy will continue. He may change his mind, or his board of directors might cave to public pressure, or perhaps the government itself will compel them to prohibit even more products. We are currently forced to rely on Tobias’ principles to prevent his platform from becoming a place that prohibits the free expression of hundreds of thousands of people.

Instead of trusting these platforms to uphold our right to free speech through commerce, we can guarantee the ability to exercise this right ourselves. New technologies are moving away from trusting third parties who build their own tightly-controlled networks and towards decentralized networks which have no ownership and give control back to individuals.

OpenBazaar is one such technology. It’s a decentralized network that no one controls. Trade occurs directly between peers with no middlemen involved. No one can charge fees, collect private data, or stop trade from happening.

With OpenBazaar, you don’t need to trust anyone in order to exercise your right to free expression. Since you are connected directly to the person you are trading with, there’s no trusting in any middlemen (they don’t exist).

OpenBazaar uses Bitcoin, which further removes any reliance on middlemen. Credit cards and payment methods like PayPal are just as tightly controlled as the commerce platforms. Bitcoin allows direct transactions just like OpenBazaar: no intermediaries involved.

Bitcoin and OpenBazaar allow for permissionless trade. You could ask for permission from your credit card company and Amazon to exercise your right to engage in free speech through commerce. Or you could just do it.

You can read more about decentralized markets in this article.