Sticker Block

Dan Frazier started his bumper sticker business because his wife at the time told him he had a "pun brain." Two decades later, Frazier is now running his online venture called CarryaBigSticker—selling left-leaning bumper stickers, magnets, books and T-shirts—from a small office on Santa Fe's Southside. He's responsible, for example, for several versions of the "Coexist" stickers with letters made up of various religious symbols, and another of President-elect Joe Biden waving with "Bye Don! 2020" in large letters.

But in the age of the internet, massive technology companies, algorithms and political unrest have dragged Frazier's small New Mexico business and his bumper stickers into a discussion around freedom of speech and censorship.

On Jan. 11, CarryaBigSticker received notice from retail giant eBay that its anti-QAnon stickers and magnets had been removed and banned. On Jan. 12, Amazon wrote a similar email, ordering Frazier to remove the "Just Say No To QAnon!" products from his shop.

eBay's email to Frazier read, in part, "Because QAnon has been associated with inciting violence, we have made the decision to remove these items."

Frazier sees the banning of his products as censorship because of the size and power companies like eBay and Amazon hold. He also wonders whether his products were caught in an overarching algorithm or sweeping search of the sites for anything that had to do with QAnon after the violent events at the US Capitol on Jan. 6.

"We have the First Amendment, which is supposed to protect our right to free speech, and you have these big companies; some of them are bigger than a lot of countries in how many people they employ and how much business they do," Frazier says. "When they say you can't use this word because supposedly it incites violence, or this symbol, especially when you're using it in a context that is supposed to be protecting against incitement to violence, then that really seems like censorship to me."

Ashley Settle, a spokeswoman for eBay, tells SFR via email that the company is actively removing QAnon items from the site but offered to review Frazier's listing again for possible reinstatement. Settle says eBay does "support the freedom of expression."

Amazon did not return a request for comment by publication time. A search through the platform turns up antique German coins and stamps decorated with swastikas, several books with the symbol on the front and buttons and magnets with a swastika inside a red circle with a bold line through it. Some creative person also turned the number 45 so it resembles a swastika and put a red line through it on buttons and stickers.

Frazier compares his situation (with some trepidation) to the removal of President Donald Trump from Twitter, Facebook and other major social platforms after the insurrection at the US Capitol when hundreds of Trump supporters forcibly entered the federal building.

"I don't like Trump and I'm glad to see that he's getting booted off of Twitter and Facebook and YouTube…But I also see the parallels to my own situation and wonder is that censorship, too?" Frazier tells SFR. "Where do we draw the line and who decides? These companies, it's not that there's just one person like Jeff Bezos of Amazon deciding. They're minions of computer geeks. Underpaid third-world employees are making decisions about what Americans can say. So that's difficult."

But Phil Davis, a longtime Albuquerque-based attorney with extensive experience in First Amendment law, says Frazier has "no basis" in the legal framework to complain, because it only applies to the government.

"The First Amendment does not apply to private business or private corporations," Davis tells SFR. "Unless Amazon or eBay have a contract with their vendors that says 'We will honor the First Amendment and everything that it stands for,' they can do anything they want."

This is not the first time Frazier's products have been removed from eBay and Amazon. When it became clear that Donald Trump was going to be the Republican nominee in 2016, Frazier started selling bumper sticker and magnet variations that featured a photo of President Trump with swastikas in the background and a Hitler-esque mustache. The products also had sayings like "Dump Trump!" and "Not My President."

They sold well over the ensuing years—until the end of 2019, when Amazon and eBay removed and banned the anti-Trump stickers. eBay even suspended Frazier's account for several days.

Frazier tells SFR that he is not going to try to get the anti-QAnon or anti-Trump products back on eBay or Amazon, despite feeling "sad and "frustrated." Instead, he continues to sell them on his own site and says he was selling so few of those stickers anyway that the removal was not a major blow to his business.

But he is introducing several new anti-conspiracy theory bumper stickers and magnets in the coming week to his online store as well as eBay and Amazon. From now on, he will just avoid any direct reference to QAnon when listing products on the major retail sites.

"[Censorship] is an ongoing dilemma that we face as a country and I think that the First Amendment and the protection of free speech is great, but it has limits," Frazier says. "Powers have limits and the question is, what should those limits be in the 21st century with these giant platforms, these technological platforms? I don't know that I actually know the answer. I'm just a little guy who sells bumper stickers."

Frazier's stickers and other products can be found at carryabigsticker.com.