Cafe Press Censorship

Last week, the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed we added a Souvenir Shop to our navigation. This blog entry was to be celebration of that shop. A virtual ribbon-cutting, amid trumpet blasts, champagne cork-popping and rented 'beauties' adding the necessary sexy ingredient to get you all salivating for our new wares.

But, my friends, the inaugural unveiling ceremony has been soured by the lemon-tipped finger of suppression. For, no sooner had we finished work on the shop, than Cafe Press summarily censored one of our designs. No reason was given. It simply disappeared.

After 4 days, we were finally told why: "We find your image in bad taste and at this time we cannot have it on our site."

However, as we're sure you won't be surprised, Cafe Press can happily satisfy the needs of the most bigoted, racist, hate-spreading members of society. But an image that calls into question the widely-condemned (mis)treatment of 'prisoners of war' by America is quite clearly too near the knuckle for such a morally upstanding social network as Cafe Press.

We need your help! This is a clear-cut example of political censorship; a smothering of free speech that Americans hold so dear. Please write to Cafe Press (citing design #27364559) and ask them to explain in their own words why they object so much to our design but apparently endorse numerous pro-violence and pro-hate designs.

We find your image in bad taste and at this time we cannot have it on our site If you get anything other than a stock response out of the customer service team, we'd love for you to forward it on to us.

Thanks for your help and in the meantime, why not take a look at the other splendid War on Terror related and 'war on terror' related t-shirts on sale.

Posted by TerrorBull Games on 1 May 2008 - 9 comments

Comments so far:

1. This is my query to CP: To Whom It May Concern. I have noticed that you have censored design #27364559. Good taste is subjective and I would not have said anything if you had high standards of the products you carry. However I will never ever buy from your store again if you keep design #27364559 censored while manufacturing and selling such hateful products as http://www.cafepress.com/rightrevolution/3552251. I kindly ask you to reconsider your decision.. JKJK from Turkey - 1 May 2008
2. Thanks JK - that's a great email: restrained, reasoned and to the point. We couldn't have put it better ourselves (and in fact we didn't). Thank you for taking the time and for your support. Peace.TerrorBull Games - 1 May 2008
3. Thank you for linking to my store in your little rant. Because of your link I made a number of sales. Please feel free to link to any of my designs and rant anytime, I do appreciate the sales I have received.Jim from US, NY - 3 May 2008
4. No worries Jim, thanks for joining in. Unfortunately we know from our own stats that the only people reading this blog are us two and my Dad (hi Dad). Could it be your sales reports are as misjudged as your opinions?TerrorBull Games - 3 May 2008
5. Either you better get a new stat counter or your dad is a closet Neo-Con. For the 24 hours prior to my posting I received this 10 - www.waronterrortheboardgame.com/wotblog/ As for my opinions being misguided, I was going to tell you the say thing about yours! CP does not play politics with what they accept. Right Wing, leftists, Straight, Gay, they all get deleted.Jim from NY USA - 5 May 2008
6. OK, fair enough. So... do you want to buy one of our t-shirts then to return the favour?TerrorBull Games - 5 May 2008
7. Hey, I'm not your dad! (Hi Mr. Andy's dad..)JK from Turkey - 5 May 2008
8. Hey thanks JK - because of your efforts and others, CafePress have now restored our banned design. Although they've removed it from their search feature. A curious policy that we're just trying to get to the bottom of.TerrorBull Games - 7 May 2008
9. Hi guys, so your stint was successful? They are banning two of my images as we speak. I have been emailing them and they gave me the same answer. "Bad Taste" How many emails did you send them before they backed off?Heather from Idaho - 10 February 2009

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