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French eBay Removes 'Yellow Star' Ranking After Anti-Nazi Complaints






The French Web site of online auctioneer eBay has temporarily changed its policy due to a user complaint linking the site's ranking system to a symbol of Nazi Germany, according to an AFP report in Yahoo! News.

Earlier this month, Dominique Bellamy wrote to the site, complaining of eBay's 'yellow star' user rank and comparing it to the yellow Star of David that European Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. Recalling the Nazi invasion of France, Bellamy's wife Francoise told AFP, "It brought back bad memories of the occupation."

As frequent eBay users know, the site employs color-coded stars as a user rating system. The 'yellow star' is the lowest rating that one user can give another. While the French site has not made any public announcement of the policy change, a spokesperson for the eBay corporation did acknowledge the change, telling AFP in an e-mail that "no definitive change has been decided yet." According to the e-mail, no other eBay sites have received similar complaints. [From: AFP]

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Tags: anti semitism, anti-semitic, AntiSemitism, controversy, ebay, jewish

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