EBay to Ban Six Dr. Seuss Books for Violating ‘Offensive Material’ Policy

Joe Raedl; Josh Edelson/ Getty Images
Joe Raedl; Josh Edelson/ Getty Images
David Ng

EBay is reportedly removing the six Dr. Seuss books that the author’s estate has stopped publishing, saying that it is working on removing the titles from its online auctions and other listings.

The Silicon Valley giant confirmed to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday afternoon that it is in the process of deleting  the titles from its marketplace. Among the titles that will be deleted are And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo.

“EBay is currently sweeping our marketplace to remove these items,” a spokeswoman for eBay told the newspaper, adding that it would take some time to review seller listings and that the company was monitoring newly published listings.

The announcement comes as eBay users took to social media on Thursday claiming that their listings for the Dr. Seuss books in question had been removed. Some users posted the messages they received from eBay, which appeared to state that listings violated the company’s “Offensive material policy.”

EBay didn’t reply to Breitbart News’ request for comment earlier on Thursday.

This week, Dr. Seuss Enterprises said it will cease publishing six titles that it has decided contain offensive material and that “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” The estate didn’t elaborate but the material in question is believed to pertain to illustrations of Asian people wearing pointy hats and eating with chopsticks.

Some eBay users noted that while the online auction site has banned the Dr. Seuss titles, it continues to allow people to sell and purchase books by Louis Farrakhan and Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Since the Dr. Seuss estate announced the ban, eBay has been flooded with copies of the six books, with prices going as high as several hundred dollars per volume.

The Journal reported that hundreds of listings for the six titles could be found on the platform as of Thursday morning, though the number appeared to be lower than on Wednesday evening.

The other banned Dr. Seuss titles are: The Cat’s Quizzer, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, and Scrambled Eggs Super!

Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com

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