Shopify’s Right-Wing Inner Circle w/ Luke LeBrun & Rachel Gilmore

08/08/24 • 58 min

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Paris Marx is joined by Luke LeBrun and Rachel Gilmore to discuss Shopify's connection to right-wing politics, through its interpersonal connection to a far-right news outlet and its reluctance to enforce its content policy on users selling hateful merchandise through their platform.
Luke LeBrun is the editor of PressProgress and Rachel Gilmore is an independent journalist.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:

Luke reported on Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian’s involvement in and funding of a right-wing Canadian “news” website called True North.
Rachel reported on Shopify’s decisions not to disable support for stores that sell fraudulent goods and promote hate that’s in violation of their Acceptable Use Policy. She recently pointed out a series of stores Shopify still supports that sell Nazi memorabilia.
Last year, an anonymous former Shopify worker spoke out about the right-wing culture at the company. Rachel confirmed the person had worked for Shopify.
In 2022, Tobi Lutke was granted a “founder’s share,” guaranteeing him 40% voting power. 46% of shareholders voted against the proposal.
Shopify found itself in the spotlight in 2021 when employees found a noose emoji had been added to the company’s Slack system.
Shopify President Harley Finkelstein has been publicly opposing plans to raise taxes on capital gains. Only 0.13% of Canadians will be paying more tax under the plan.
Some right-wing figures in Canada deny the truth of the residential schools.

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Luke reported on Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian’s involvement in and funding of a right-wing Canadian “news” website called True North.
Rachel reported on Shopify’s decisions not to disable support for stores that sell fraudulent goods and promote hate that’s in violation of their Acceptable Use Policy. She recently pointed out a series of stores Shopify still supports that sell Nazi memorabilia.
Last year, an anonymous former Shopify worker spoke out about the right-wing culture at the company. Rachel confirmed the person had worked for Shopify.
In 2022, Tobi Lutke was granted a “founder’s share,” guaranteeing him 40% voting power. 46% of shareholders voted against the proposal.
Shopify found itself in the spotlight in 2021 when employees found a noose emoji had been added to the company’s Slack system.
Shopify President Harley Finkelstein has been publicly opposing plans to raise taxes on capital gains. Only 0.13% of Canadians will be paying more tax under the plan.
Some right-wing figures in Canada deny the truth of the residential schools.

Support the show

Previous Episode

Escaping the Processed World w/ Chris Carlsson

Paris Marx is joined by Chris Carlsson to discuss Processed World, a tech-critical, anti-capitalist magazine that satirized the absurdity of work in its publishing run between 1981 and 2005.
Chris Carlsson is the author of many books, including most recently When Shells Crumble. He’s the director of Shaping SF and a cofounder of Critical Mass. He was also one of the people behind Processed World.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:

You can find the full archive of Processed World on the Internet Archive.
Chris wrote about his experience making Processed World in Notes from Below.
Jacob Silverman wrote a great piece on the legacy of Processed World for The Baffler.

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Next Episode

Is Social Media Fueling Far-Right Riots? w/ Hussein Kesvani

Paris Marx is joined by Hussein Kesvani to discuss the far-right attacks that happened after the Southport stabbing in the UK and how larger structural issues in media, politics, and tech laid the groundwork for violence against visible minorities.
Hussein Kesvani is a co-host of Trashfuture and Ten Thousand Posts.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:

The stabbing in Southport resulted in the deaths of three children and injuries to eight children and two adults.
After days of far-right attacks, there were large anti-fascist and anti-racist demonstrations across the UK.
Some fascists attacked hotels housing asylum seekers, but in places like Bristol, locals started defending the hotels.
In 1968, Conservative MP Enoch Powell delivered the “rivers of blood” speech.
Elon Musk has been sharing a series of incendiary posts and false information that have helped fuel these attacks.
The billionaire’s changes to Twitter have helped fuel right-wing misinformation.

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