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Website profiting from hate and exploitation

BACK in Britain, I'm dismayed that internet auction site eBay isn't only allowing the sale of violent football hooligan videos - as revealed in this column - it's now allowing traders to flog merchandise promoting extremist political parties.

Badges, stickers, and wristbands supporting the BNP and other far-right groups are being openly sold by a range of sellers. There's even a magazine called Mirth promising cartoons "for fun-seeking fascists".

Earlier this week, BBC1's Watchdog programme highlighted how some of eBay's trusted community of "power-sellers" have been selling fake Timberland shoes and other counterfeit goods.

What's remarkable is that eBay likes to portray itself as a "community" website, that simply brings people together in a huge online market.

We can now see that claim for what it is. The site is actually a multi-million pound business that profits from footy aggro, dodgy dealing, and neo-Nazism.

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