Who Controls Online Shopping?
In
recent years the promotion of gun related sales on the internet has steadily
increased. That is until recently when Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram banned
the sale of guns or gun related parts within their websites. Reports have come
out saying that the Obama administration pressured these online moguls into
implementing these bans. This leaves us to ask the questions, who controls our
online shopping? What’s happening to free commerce? According to the most recent census consumers
continue to trend to online shopping, as 15% of all sales are online. Therefore
by stopping the sales of guns and gun related parts on websites like Amazon,
Facebook, and Instagram will substantially impact many manufacturers,
distributors, and retailers financially. That being said the larger and
wealthier corporations can withstand this loss, but nevertheless the small
businesses don’t stand a chance due to the lack of alternative avenues to
market their products through ecommerce. So one would ask the question again,
who really controls Online Shopping? If it’s not “We the People” then who is
it?