January 25, 2021, 12:10 pm
E-commerce platform Teespring has suffered a massive data leak after people discovered that it was the popular apparel customization site that allowed the creation and sale of the “Camp Auschwitz” shirt seen at the Capitol insurrection.
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According to a report by ZDNet, hackers leaked “usernames, real names, phone numbers, home addresses, and Facebook and OpenID identifiers users used to log into their accounts” as well as email addresses.
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The group responsible for this calls themselves ShinyHunters and often leaks data like this in order to interfere with less benevolent hackers’ plans to sell it in “DarkNet markets.”
The bad news is that this leak could expose the personal data of millions of Teespring users who didn’t use the platform to make, sell, or purchase grossly antisemitic shirts and other merchandise.
The good news is that this hurts Teespring more than anybody else, and they really deserve some consequences after allowing the sale of that shirt on their platform.
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Teespring did issue a public apology on Twitter after people found called them out, saying they were “sickened” by the revelation and promising to have their employees “sweep” their platform for similar items. They also said they made a donation to the Auschwitz‑Birkenau Memorial and State Museum “to help continue their important work and education.”
“As a creative platform, we try to allow and encourage our users freedom of expression,” the company tweeted. “We have detection systems in place for problematic designs, but at times, bad characters evade these systems. We’re continuously striving to improve our systems and processes.”
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Teespring, as well as similar sites that also sold the “Camp Auschwitz” shirt prior to the world seeing it in the Capitol, have long had issues with far-right users creating and selling highly offensive items on their platforms. Just last year, Teespring was criticized for allowing the sale of shirts that said “I Survived the Holocaugh,” a “joke” among white supremacists about the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, they were again called out for the same issue with shirts that praised white supremacist mass murderer Dylan Roof.
Until they find a way to stop terrible people from selling terrible shirts through their platform before it happens, their apologies fall more than a little flat.
*First Published: January 25, 2021, 12:10 pm
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